(Seetzen, in Zach's Monat. Con-esj^. xviii. 431 ; Burck- hardt, Trav. in Syria, p. 305 sq.). The foundations of an ancient temple observed by th^se travellers on the w^est of the town are perhaps those of the Christian church which it once contained (»/ ttoXic Mjytfi/^wi', Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, 709-772). A large tank, columns, and other marks of former structures are still to be seen ; the remains of a Roman road exist near the town, which seems formerly to have connected it with Heshbon. "Taken as a Hebrew word, Jle-deba means ' waters of quiet ;' but, except the above tank, what wa- ters can there ever have been on that high plain V The Arabic name, though similar in soimd, has a different signification" (Smith).
The plain ("IVw'^p) from Medeba to Dibon, given in Josh, xiii, 9 as the southern portion of the territory of the Amorites, is the modern Btlka, a fertile tract thus described by Ifaumer (J'aldstina, j>.70): "Soutliwards from Kaljbath Amnion as far as the Amon the country is mostly table-land, in some places for a considerable distance without a tree, but covered with the ruins of cities that have been destroyed. Towards the east it stretches away into the desert of Arabia, and on the west it slopes away to the Jordan." Tlie part of this plateau here referred to is elsewhere (Xumb. xxi, 20) called, after its former inhabitants, " the field of Moab," or (Numb, xxiii, 14) " the field of the watchmen" (comp. Hengstenberg, Bileam, p. 241, 243). See Misiiok.
Medhurst, Waltkr Henry, D.D., an English missionary and Chinese scholar, was born in London in 179(). He first entered the missionary field of labor in 1810, when he was sent to China by the London 3Iis- sionarj- Society to ascertain if the country was open to the Gospel, and, if so, to furnish this people with a cor- rect version of the Scriptures in Chinese. After having labored successfully in India, on the island of JIalacoa, and other Asiatic countries, he was again sent to China in 1835, w^ith the I!ev. Edwin Stevens; but he did not commence active missionarj- work in that country until 1845, when he was joined by Ix)ckhart, and settled at Shanghai. He had charge of the printing establish- ment which was owned by this society, and had up to this time been operated at Batavia; he now removed it to Shanghai, and began the publication of sermons and tracts. In spite of the opposition of the numerous Ro- manists, the mission grew so rapidly that in the year 1847 34,000 copies of different works were printed, and 500 tracts were weekly distributed. This same year delegates from several stations convened in Shanghai for the revision of the New Testament in Chinese. Med- hurst was engaged in this important labor until 1H50, when he withdrew, and gave his whole time to the re- vision of the Old Testament. He died Jan. 24, 1857, a few days after his return to England, closing a life of valuable service spent in the interests of Christian mis- sions. INIedhurst founded several orphan asyhnns, and did much good among the Asiatics in various ways. His works of special interest are, China, its State ami Prospects, with especial Reference to the J>ijj'usiiin of the Gospel (Lond. 1838, 8vo) : — IHssertatiim on the Thudngy of the Chine.ie (8vo) : — The Chinese ]'ersion of the Script- ures (1851, 8vo) :— also a Chinese Dictionary (|H;{8,4to), and a Japanese and English Vocabulary. See Vaixreau, Dictionnaire des Contemporuins, s. v. ; Allibone. iJivt. if B)it. and Amer. A uthors, vol. ii, s. v.
Me'dia ("^^"2). The same Hebrew word is used in
the (). T. as the name of a son of Japhet. of the nation
which he founded, and of their country. Hence we find
it rendered in four different ways in our A. V. In most
cases these r('n<k'rings are arbitrary, and lend to confuse
rather than explain — (1.) J/</(/(;/, the proper rendering
((ien. X, 2; MatJot; Alex. Mot"rti; Madai; 1 Cliron. i,
, 5, Mofai^); (2.) Medes {Mi]?oi,2. Kings xvii.O; xviii,
I 11; Esther i, 19; Isa. xiii, 17; .Jer. xxv,25; Dan. ix. 1 ;
! V, 28; y\i)lna, Ezra vi,22; Medoi); (3.) Media (M//-
I ^oj, J/e(/tii, Esther i, 3 ; x, 2; Isa. xxi, 2; Pan. viii,20).-
MEDIA
15
MEDIA
(4.) Mede, only in Dan. xi, 1. In the following account we chiefly make use of the articles in Kitto's, Smith's, and Fairbairn's dictionaries.
I. Geography. — The general situation of the country is abundantly clear, though its limits may not be capa- ble of being precisely determined. Media lay north- west of Persia Proper, south and south-west of the Cas- pian, east of Armenia and Assyria, west and north-west of the great salt desert of Iran. Its greatest length was from north to south, and in this direction it extended from the 32d to the 40th parallel, a distance of 550 miles. In width it reached from about long. 45^ to 53"^; but its average breadth was not more than from 250 to 300 miles. Its area may be reckoned at about 150,000 square miles, or three fourths of that of modern France. The natural boundary of Jledia on the north was the river Aras ; on the west Zagros, and the mountain-chain which ^connects Zagros with Ararat ; on tlie south Media was probably separated from Persia by the desert which now forms the boundary between Farsistan and Irak Ajemi; on the east its natural limit was tlie desert and the Cas- pian Gates. West of the gates it was bounded, not (as is commonly said) by the Caspian Sea, but by the moun- tain range south of that sea, which is the natural bound- ary between the high and the low country. It thus com- prised the modern provinces of Irak Ajemi, Persian Kur- distan, part of Luristan, Azerbijan, perhaps Talish and Ghilan, but not Mazanderan or Asterabad.