Minstrel–Mizpah

The Hebrew word in (2 Kings 3:15) properly signifies a player upon a stringed instruments like the harp or kinnor [Harp], whatever its precise character may have been, on which David played before Saul, (1 Samuel 16:16; 18:10; 19:9) and which the harlots of the great cities used to carry with them as they walked, to attract notice. (Isaiah 23:16) The “minstrels” in (Matthew 9:23) were the flute-players who were employed as professional mourners, to whom frequent allusion is made. (2 Chronicles 35:25; Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17-20)

This name occurs only in (Matthew 23:23) and Luke 11:42 As one of those herbs the tithe of which the Jews were most scrupulously exact in paying. The horse mint, M. Sylvestris, and several other species of mint are common in Syria.

(appointed place), The gate, one of the gates of Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 3:31) It was probably not in the wall of Jerusalem proper, but in that of the city of David, or Zion, and somewhere near to the junction of the two on the north side.

A miracle may be defined to be a plain and manifest exercise by a man, or by God at the call of a man, of those powers which belong only to the Creator and Lord of nature; and this for the declared object of attesting that a divine mission is given to that man. It is not, therefore, the wonder, the exception to common experience, that constitutes the miracle, as is assumed both in the popular use of the word and by most objectors against miracles. No phenomenon in nature, however unusual, no event in the course of God’s providence, however unexpected, is a miracle unless it can be traced to the agency of man (including prayer under the term agency), and unless it be put forth as a proof of divine mission. Prodigies and special providences are not miracles. (A miracle is not a violation of the laws of nature. It is God’s acting upon nature in a degree far beyond our powers, but the same king of act as our wills are continually exerting upon nature. We do not in lifting a stone interfere with any law of nature, but exert a higher force among the laws. Prof. Tyndall says that “science does assert that without a disturbance of natural law quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling of the St. Lawrence up the falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, individual or nation, could call one shower from heaven.” And yet men by firing cannon during battle can cause a shower: does that cause such a commotion among the laws of nature? The exertion of a will upon the laws does not make a disturbance of natural law; and a miracle is simply the exertion of God’s will upon nature.—ED.) Again, the term “nature” suggests to many persons the idea of a great system of things endowed with powers and forces of its own—a sort of machine, set a-going originally by a first cause, but continuing its motions of itself. Hence we are apt to imagine that a change in the motion or operation of any part of it by God would produce the same disturbance of the other parts as such a change would be likely to produce in them if made by us or by any other natural agent. But if the motions and operations of material things be produced really by the divine will, then his choosing to change, for a special purpose, the ordinary motion of one part does not necessarily or probably imply his choosing to change the ordinary motions of other parts in a way not at all requisite for the accomplishment of that special purpose. It is as easy for him to continue the ordinary course of the rest, with the change of one part, as of all the phenomena without any change at all. Thus, though the stoppage of the motion of the earth in the ordinary course of nature would be attended with terrible convulsions, the stoppage of the earth miraculously, for a special purpose to be served by that only, would not of itself be followed by any such consequences. (Indeed, by the action of gravitation it could be stopped, as a stone thrown up is stopped, in less than two minutes, and yet so gently as not to stir the smallest feather or mote on its surface.—ED.) From the same conception of nature as a machine, we are apt to think of interferences with the ordinary course of nature as implying some imperfection in it. But it is manifest that this is a false analogy; for the reason why machines are made is to save us trouble; and, therefore, they are more perfect in proportion as they answer this purpose. But no one can seriously imagine that the universe is a machine for the purpose of saving trouble to the Almighty. Again, when miracles are described as “interferences with the law of nature,” this description makes them appear improbable to many minds, from their not sufficiently considering that the laws of nature interfere with one another, and that we cannot get rid of “interferences” upon any hypothesis consistent with experience. The circumstances of the Christian miracles are utterly unlike those of any pretended instances of magical wonders. This difference consists in— (1) The greatness, number, completeness and publicity of the miracles. (2) In the character of the miracles. They were all beneficial, helpful, instructive, and worthy of God as their author. (3) The natural beneficial tendency of the doctrine they attested. (4) The connection of them with a whole scheme of revelation extending from the origin of the human race to the time of Christ.

(rebellion), the sister of Moses, was the eldest of that sacred family; and she first appears, probably as a young girl, watching her infant brother’s cradle in the Nile, (Exodus 2:4) and suggesting her mother as a nurse. ver. 7. After the crossing of the Red Sea “Miriam the prophetess” is her acknowledged title. ch. (Exodus 15:20) The prophetic power showed itself in her under the same form as that which it assumed in the days of Samuel and David,—poetry, accompanied with music and processions. ch. (Exodus 15:1-19) She took the lead, with Aaron, in the complaint against Moses for his marriage with a Cushite, (Numbers 12:1,2) and for this was attacked with leprosy. This stroke and its removal, which took place at Hazeroth, form the last public event of Miriam’s life. ch. (Numbers 12:1-15) She died toward the close of the wanderings at Kadesh, and was buried there. ch. (Numbers 20:1) (B.C. about 1452.)

(fraud), a Benjamite, born in the land of Moab. (1 Chronicles 8:10)

(Exodus 38:8; Job 37:18) The Hebrew women on coming out of Egypt probably brought with them mirrors like those which were used by the Egyptians, and were made of a mixed metal, chiefly copper, wrought with admirable skill, and susceptible of a bright lustre. (1 Chronicles 13:12)

(height), a place in Moab. (Jeremiah 48:1) It appears to be mentioned also in (Isaiah 25:12) thorough there rendered in the Authorized Version “high fort.”

(who is what God is?).

(entreaty), one of the towns in the territory of Asher, (Joshua 19:26) allotted to the Gershonite Levites. ch. (Joshua 21:30)

(purification), a Benjamite, son of Elpaal and descendant of Shaharaim. (1 Chronicles 8:12)

(a hearing).

(fatness), the fourth of the twelve lion-faced Gadites who joined David at Ziklag. (1 Chronicles 12:10)

the fourth of the four “families of Kirjath-jearim,” i.e. colonies proceeding therefrom and founding towns. (1 Chronicles 2:53)

one of those who returned with Zerubbabel and Jeshua from Babylon. (Nehemiah 7:7)

(the flew of waters), a place in northern Palestine. Dr. Thomson treats Misrephoth-maim as identical with a collection of springs called Ain-Musheirifeh, on the seashore close under the Ras en-Nakhura ; but this has the disadvantage of being very far from Sidon. May it not rather be the place with which we are familiar in the later history as Zarephat, near Sidon?

a coin current in Palestine in the time of our Lord. (Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4) It seems in Palestine to have been the smallest piece of money (worth about one-fifth of a cent), being the half of the farthing, which was a coin of very low value. From St. Mark’s explanation, “two mites, which make a farthing,” ver. 42, it may perhaps be inferred that the farthing was the commoner coin.

(sweetness), the name of an unknown desert encampment of the Israelites. (Numbers 33:28,29)

the designation of Joshaphat, one of David’s guard in the catalogue of (1 Chronicles 11:43)

(given by Mithra).

(something rolled around the head), the turban or headdress of the high priest, made of fine linen cloth, eight yards long, folded around the head. On the front was a gold plate on which was inscribed Holiness to the Lord . (Exodus 28:4,37,39; 39:28,30; Leviticus 8:9)

(mutilated), the chief town of Lesbos, an island of the AEgean Sea, 7 1/2 miles from the opposite point of Asia Minor. The city is situated on the east coast of the island. Mitylene is the intermediate place where St. Paul stopped for the night between Assos and Chios. (Acts 20:14,15) The town itself was celebrated in Roman times for the beauty of its buildings. In St. Paul’s day it had the privileges of a free city. (It is now a place of no importance, called Mitelin . It contains about 1100 houses, Greek and Turkish, with narrow and filthy streets.—ED.)

When the Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the first stage of the exodus from Egypt, there were up with them “a mixed multitude.” (Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4) They were probably the offspring of marriages contracted between the Israelites and the Egyptians; and the term may also include all those who were not of pure Israelite blood. In Exodus and Numbers it probably denoted the miscellaneous hangers-on of the Hebrew camp, whether they were the issue of spurious marriages with Egyptians or were themselves Egyptians, or belonging to other nations. The same happened on the return from Babylon, and in (Nehemiah 13:3) (comp. vs Nehe 13:23-30) a slight clue is given by which the meaning of the “mixed multitude” may be more definitely ascertained.

(small), The hill, a mountain apparently in the northern part of transjordanic Palestine, from which the author of Psalm 42 utters his pathetic appeal. ver. 6. (It is probably a summit of the eastern ridge of Lebanon, not far from Mahanaim, where David lay after escaping from the rebellion of Absalom.—McClintock and Strong.)

and Miz’peh (a watch-tower), the name of several places in Palestine.