The period of mourning for the dead is variously given. The ordinary time, however, as we have already noticed, was seven days. All that was in a house or tent along with a dead body was unclean for seven days, and the bread which the mourners ate was, as we have seen, defiled. The period of mourning prescribed by Jewish authorities for a parent isa year. Of this time the first thirty days are considered the most important, and of these, again, the first seven are most stringently observed.
e first seven days after a death are known as the Shiva, during which the mourners, as has already been indicated, are not permitted to cook anything for their own use, and are required to avoid all forms of amusement and recreation, not even listening to music. On hearing of the falsely reported death of Joseph, Jacob mourned for him many days (Gn 37%), and he himself in turn was mourned by the Egyptians threescore and ten days (Gn 50%), including, however, forty days of his embalming. Herodotus (ii. 86, 88) tells us that the Egyptians had seventy-two days of mourning for the dead. Joseph’s own mourning for his
father is said to have lasted seven days (Gn 50”). The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, as they had wept for Aaron when he died
MOUSE
MUFFLERS 454
apon Mt. Hor (Nu 20”, Dt 34°). Of Judith it is said (Jth 16%) that the house of Israel mourned for hersevendays. ‘Seven days,’ says the Son of Sirach (Sir 22"), ‘are the days of mourning for the dead ; but for a fool and an ungodly man, all the days of his life.’ The prescribed period of mourning for a father and mother expires on the eve of the first anniversary of the death. The anniversary itself is invariably observed with strict solemnity by the Jews. It is said that hundreds of Israelites who profess none of the orthodox beliefs of Judaism, and recognize none of its ceremonial laws as bind- ing ΠΡῸΣ them, yet keep this anniversary, attend- ing the synagogue for the only time in the year, and distributing money among their poor and afflicted co-religionists. The scriptural instance of commemorating the dead on the annive of their death is that of the daughters of Israel who went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, and kept up the celebration four days (Jg 11).
Lirsraturs.—Nowack, Heb. Arch. i. p. 193 f.; Benzinger, Heb. Arch. p. 163 ff.; art. ‘ Trauer bei den Hebriern’ in He , RE?, and ‘Mourning’ in Kitto, Cycl. ; Thomson, TaeiiGent Book (. Pal. and Jerus. See ‘Funerals and Mourning’ under
Manners and Oustoms’ in Index); Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs; Peritz, ‘Woman in the Ancient Hebrew Oult’ (re- printed from JBL, 1898, Part ii.); continuation of art. inJQR on ‘Death and Burial Customs among the Jews,’ by A. P. Bender, Cf. also W. R. Smith, RS? (see ‘Mourning’ in Index) ; 8Schwally, Leben nach dem Tode ; Well., Reste?, 177 ff.; Driver on Am 6216 acai 232 ff. ; and Bertholet, Isr. Vorstell. v. Zustand nach dem 7’ T. NICOL.
MOUSE (53:0 ‘akbar, μῦς, mus).—‘ The mice that mar the land,’ of which the Philistines made golden images (1S 6*°), were probably the short-tailed field mice, or ‘voles,’ Arvicola arvalis, Desm., which are universal in Palestine. The kind of mouse that was eaten (Is 66!7) may be the hamster, Cricetus pheus, Pall., which is edible. The mouse forbidden as food (Lv 11”) is probably a generic or family name. See, further, Dillm. on Ly 11” and W. R. Smith, 2S! 275. Tristram found 25 2 teins of rats and mice, six of sand rats, three of jerboas, and four of dormice, in Pal. and Syri Immense numbers of the warrens of these rodents are found even in the deserts. Their food is pro- vided for them by the vast number of bulbs and corms of crocus, iris, squill, asphodel, cyclamen, erodium, ete.
On the question whether the mouse was ancient] used as a symbol of pestilence, see J. Meinhold, Die Jesajaerzahlungen, p. 34 ff. G. E. Post.
MOUTH (79 the commonest term, also 97 ‘ palate,’ ‘roof of mouth’; Aram. o5 Dn 4%+5 t. in Dn; LXX and NT oréyua).—ns peh, the ordinary Heb. word for ‘ mouth,’ means also ‘language,’ ‘ corner,’ ‘edge,’ ‘skirt,’ and any opening such as of a well Gn 297, sack Gn 42’, the earth Nu 16”, a cave Jos 10”, grave Ps 1417, 49 Aék, ‘ palate,’ is used where the reference is to the sense of taste or to the interior of the mouth, as when the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, Job 124 , Ps 137%, Ca 7°, but in Hos 8! this is the word that is used in connexion with the blowing of the trumpet.
The way in which the Bible constantly uses the organ of speech in the sense of ‘language’ is a conspicuous instance of its employment of the concrete for the abstract. Thus enforced silence is the laying of the hand upon the mouth, Jg 18”, Job 29° 404, Mic 7", Tit 1" (see Lip). So freedom of speech is the enlarged mouth, 1 5. 2!, Ps 35%, Is 57*, Eph 6%. Similarly, to receive a message or be instructed as to what to say is to have words put into the mouth, 2S 14°, Jer 19, Humiliation is the mouth laid in the dust, La 3”.