MUHLHAUSEN
723
MULBERRY
Miihlhausen, Jom-Tob, of. See Lipmann. Muhlius. See Muhl.
Muis, SiJiKON iSI.VROTTE DE, a French Hebraist, was born' in 1587 at Orleans. Of his earlier personal history it is only known that he was canon and arch- deacon of Soissons. Four years after Cayet's death (1014) he was installed professor of Hebrew in the royal college, and kept that chair until removed by death in 1644. Muis combined with the knowledge of this lan- guage solid judgment, fine discrimination, a pure, ele- gant, and easy style, and very extensive acquaintance with sacred history and the groundwork of religion. He had the reputation of being one of the most learned interpreters of the Scriptures. We possess of him, R. JJai-idU Kimchi Comment arias in Malachiam, Heh. et Lat. (Paris, 1618, 4to) :— /« Psalmum xix trium rahhino- riim Commentarii Hthraici cum Lat. interpretat. (Paris, 16-20, ^vo): — Annotutiones in Psalmum xxxiv, printed in Bellarmine's Institut. Hebraicce (1622, 8vo) -.—Com- mmturius Utieralis et historicus in omnes Psalmos et se- lectu V. T. cantica, cum versione nova ex Hebrao (Par. 1630, fol.; Lovan. 1770, 2 vols. 4to) ; this commentary is considered one of the best in existence, and was so pronounced by Bossuet, Godeau, Gassendi, Voisin, and other Roman Catholic authorities:— .4 sse?tw Veritatis Hebraicce adversus Joannis 3Iorini exercitationes in ntrumque Samaritanorum Pentafeuchum (Par. 163 1, 8 vo) :
and, in answer to Morin's repeated charge, Exei'-
citationes Biblicce (Par. 1633), a second defence of the Hebrew text entitled .4 «se?Yio Veritatis Hebraicce altera (Par. 1634), accompanied with a Specimen variorum sa- crornm, containing notes of rabbins on the most difficult passages in the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, and the first chapters of Judges: — Castir/atio Animadversionum ad Pentateuchum (Par. 1639, 8vo). The most of De Mu- is's writings have, after his death, been collected and published by Claude d'Auvergne (Par. 1650, fol.).— Hoe- fer, Nouv. Biog. Genera.le, s. v. ; Dupin, Biblioth. des Au- teuis Ecclesiastiques ; Niceron, Memoires, vol. xxxii, s. V.
Mulberry stands in the Auth. Vers, as the render- ing of the Heb. X:3, (baka', regarded by Gesenius, Heb. Lex. s. v., as if from "^^S, to weep), or in the plur. D"'i<23 (bel-aim') ; which occurs, the first in Psa. Ixxxiv, 6, " Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a Avell; the rain also fiUeth the pools;'' the second in 2 Sam. V, 23, 24, and in 1 Chron. xiv, 14, 15, where the Philistines having spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim, David was ordered to attack them from be- hind, " And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that thou shalt bestir thyself." In the former of these passages the term is usually regarded as an appellative, i. q. " the valley of tea7-s" (so the Sept. ?'/ KoiXdg rov K\av5pw- 'i'og,Yulg.vallis lachrymarum ; see Baca) ; but in the latter two it undoubtedly designates some tree or shrub (the Sept. has also KXav^puJu in 2 Sam., but dTTLog in 1 Chron. ; the Vulg. pynis in both places). The Jewish rabbins, with several modern versions, understand the mulberry-tree; others retain the Hebrew word. Nei- ther the mulben-i/ nor the pear tree, however, satisfies translators and commentators, because they do not pos- sess any characters particularly suitable to the above passages. With regard to the mulberry, Rosenmliller justly observes (.4 Iterth. IV, i, 247 sq. ; Bibl. Bat. p. 256) that this interpretation " is countenanced neither by the ancient translators nor by the occurrence of any similar term in the cognate languages" — unless we adopt the opinion of Ursinus, who (.4 rhor. Bib. iii, 75), having in view the root of the word bahah, " to weep," identifies the name of the tree in question with the mulberry, '•from the blood-like tears which the pressed berries pour forth." The mulberry-tree, moreover, appears to liave another name in Scripture, namely, the "syca- mine." Though there is no evidence to show that the
mulberry-tree occurs in the Hebrew Bible, yet the fruit of this tree {popov) is mentioned in 1 Mace, vi, 34 as having been, together with grape-juice, shown to the elephants of Antiochus Eupator, in order to irritate these animals and make them more formidable opponents to the army of the Jews. It is well known that many an- imals are enraged when they see blood or anything of the color of blood. See Sycamine.
Celsius (i, 339) quotes Abu'l Fadli's description of a shrub of Mecca called baca, with abundant fruit, distil- ling a juice from its branches when cut (whence the name, i. q. tear), and of a warming property ; apparently some species of A myris or Balsamodendron. Most lex- icographers are satisfied with this explanation. That plant is probably the same with the one referred to by Forskal (p. 198) among the obscure plants without fructification which he obtained from Jobbce, and which he says was called baka, or ebka, with a poisonous milky sap. If this be the same as the former, both are still unknown any further, and we cannot therefore deter- mine whether they are found in Palestine or not. As to the tree of which Abu'l Fadli speaks, and which Spren- gel {Hist, ret herb. p. 12) identifies with A myris Gilea- densis, Lin., it is impossible that it can denote the baka of the Hebrew Bible, although there is an exact simi- larity in form between the Hebrew and Arabic terms; for the A myridacece are tropical shrubs, and never could have grown in the valley of Rephaim, the scriptural lo- cality for the bekaim.