Mizpah

VIEW:14 DATA:01-04-2020

a watch-tower; speculation
(same as Mizpeh)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


Hebrew "the Mizpah," generally a "watchtower". Mizpeh (masculine) expresses rather the town; Mizpah (feminine) the district (Jos_11:8; Jos_11:8).
1. In Gilead E. of Jordan. The name Laban gave to Galeed, the "heap of witness," the memorial of his covenant with Jacob, and the boundary landmark between them (Gen_31:48-49; Gen_31:52), "for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another." (See GALEED.) Herein he adopts Jacoh's language (Hebrew) and religion (Jehovah's worship). In Hos_5:1, "ye house of the king, ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor," the sense is, Ye ought to have been "watchers" guarding Israel from evil, but ye have been as hunters entrapping them into it. Mizpah in the E. and Tabor in the W. include the high places of the whole kingdom in which the rulers set up idol altars. Here Israel assembled to choose a leader in its "misery" when Ammon, having oppressed eastern Palestine, was threatening also to attack Judah and Ephraim W. of Jordan.
Jephthah passed Mizpah on his way from Gilead to fight Ammon (Jdg_10:16-17; Jdg_11:29). Here on the hallowed ground he "uttered all his words before Jehovah in the Mizpah." Thenceforth his home was there; and at Mizpah the sad meeting with his daughter took place (Jdg_11:34). Seemingly identical with Ramoth Gilead, or Ramath ("high place") Mizpeh (Jos_13:26); now es Salt, or else Mizpah is the Mount Jebel Osha, to the N.W. Here too Israel met, as being the ancient sanctuary, to determine what was to be done after the outrage perpetrated at Gibeah (Jdg_20:1; Jdg_20:3; Jdg_21:1; Jdg_21:5; Jdg_21:8).
2. Mizpeh Moab, where the Moabite king lived when David entrusted his parents to him (1Sa_22:3). Possibly Kir Moab, now Kerak, S.E. of the Dead Sea. More probably a mountain fastness on the high land bounding the Arboth Moab on the E. of the Dead Sea; on the mountains Abarim or Pisgah (Deu_34:1), which David could easily reach from Bethlehem by crossing the Jordan near its entrance into the Dead Sea. Mount Pisgah was the most commanding eminence in Moab, and contained the sanctuary Nebo, of which part was called Zophim (derived from the same root as Mizpeh).
3. The land of Mizpah, the abode of the Hivites, "under Hermon," who joined Jabin against Joshua (Jos_11:8). To "the valley of Mizpah eastward" Joshua chased Jabin's conquered hosts (Jos_11:8). The valley is probably part of the great hollow, Coelo-Syria, now Buka'a (Amo_1:5, margin), containing Baalbek; near which on the N. is the hill Haush tell Safiyeh.
4. Mizpah of Benjamin (Jos_18:26). Fortified by Asa against the invasions of northern Israel (1Ki_15:22). The residence and scene of Gedaliah's murder (Jer_40:7-10; Jer_41:1-2), At Mizpah Israel repented at Samuel's call (1Sa_7:5-6), and "drew water and poured it out before the Lord," pleading symbolically their misery, powerlessness, and prostration by the Philistines, that so God might strengthen them. An act of deepest humiliation and confession of misery, the result of sin. (Psa_22:14; Psa_58:7; 2Sa_14:14; Isa_40:29-30; 2Co_12:9-10; Lam_2:19, "pour out thine heart like water before the face of Jehovah.") Here Samuel appointed Saul king (1Ki_10:17-25). Mizpah with Bethel and Gilgal were the three cities which Samuel as judge visited on circuit.
Men of Mizpah on the return from Babylon helped in rebuilding the wall; "the ruler of the district of Mizpah" and "the ruler of Mizpah" took part in it (Neh_3:7; Neh_3:15; Neh_3:19). Judas Maccabeus (1Ma_3:44) assembled the Jews at Maspha, as being "aforetime a place of prayer over against (implying Mizpah was in full sight of) Jerusalem." Josephus (Ant. 11:8, section 5; B. J. v. 2-3; 2:19, section 4; 5:2-3) mentions Sapha (a corruption of Maspha, Mizpah) as the place of Alexander's meeting Jaddua the high priest; and elsewhere calls it Scopus, i.e. the look-out place, from whence on the broad ridge (the continuation of Olivet), seven stadia N. of the city, one gains the first view of Jerusalem. The Septuagint twice renders Mizpah skopia. Nebi Samwil, on the W. bound of Benjamin toward the Philistines, with whom Israel was about to war (1Sa_7:5-6), Robinson identifies with Mizpah.
But it is five miles off, though in view of the Sakhrah of the temple and the Church of the Sepulchre; and this is at variance with 1 Maccabees, "over against Jerusalem." Moreover it is out of the way of the pilgrims from Samaria to Jerusalem, murdered by Ishmael; whereas Scopus is in the direct road (Jer_41:7). Sennacherib at Nob first caught the full view of "the house of Zion and hill of Jerusalem"; Nob therefore is probably Mizpah. Condor (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, January, 1875) identifies Nob with Nebi Samwil, the Arabs mistaking Nob "high place" for Nebi "prophet." Nebi Samwil is so near Gibeon that it must have been the high place visited by Solomon; the view from it is splendid. Traces of the outer court of the tabernacle are yet discoverable, and a curious rock cut approach. (but, see NOB.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Miz'pah. Miz'pah and Miz'peh (a watch-tower). The name of several places in Palestine.
1. The earliest of all, in order of the narrative, is the heap of stones, piled up by Jacob and Laban, Gen_31:48, on Mount Gilead, Gen_31:25, to serve both as a witness to the covenant then entered into, and as a landmark of the boundary between them. Gen_31:52.
On this natural watch-tower, did the children of Israel assemble for the choice of a leader, to resist the children of Ammon. Jdg_10:17. There, the fatal meeting took place between Jephthah and his daughter, on his return from the war. Jdg_11:34.
It seems most probable that the "Mizpeh-gilead" which is mentioned here, and here only, is the same as the "ham-Mizpah." of the other parts of the narrative; and both are probably identical with the Ramath-mizpeh and Ramoth-gilead, so famous in the later history.
2. A second Mizpeh, on the east of Jordan, was the Mizpeh-moab, where the king of that nation was living, when David committed his parents to his care. 1Sa_22:3.
3. A third was "the land of Mizpeh," or more accurately "of Mizpah," the residence of the Hivites, who joined the northern confederacy, against Israel, headed by Jabin, king of Hazor. Jos_11:3. No other mention is found of this district in the Bible, unless it be identical with Mizpah, 4.
4. The valley of Mizpeh, to which the discomfited hosts, of the same confederacy were chased by Joshua, Jos_11:8, perhaps identical with the great country of Coele-Syria.
5. Mizpeh, a city of Judah, Jos_15:38, in the district of the Shefelah, or maritime lowland.
6. Mizpeh, in Joshua and Samuel; elsewhere Mizpah, a "city" of Benjamin, not far from Jerusalem. Jos_18:26; 1Ki_15:22; 2Ch_16:6; Neh_3:7.
It was one of the places fortified by Asa, against the incursions of the kings of northern Israel, 1Ki_15:22; 2Ch_16:6; Jer_41:10, and after the destruction of Jerusalem , it became the residence of the superintendent, appointed by the king of Babylon, Jer_40:7; etc., and the scene of his murder, and of the romantic incidents connected , with the name of Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah.
It was one of the three holy cities, which Samuel visited in turn as judge of the people, 1Sa_7:6; 1Sa_7:16, the other two being Bethel and Gilgal. With the conquest of Jerusalem, and the establishment there of the ark, the sanctity of Mizpah, or at least its reputation, seems to have declined.
From Mizpah, the city or the temple was visible. These conditions are satisfied by the position of Scopus, the broad ridge which forms the continuation, of the Mount of Olives to the north and cast, from which the traveller gains, like Titus, his first view, and takes his last farewell, of the domes, walls and towers of the Holy City.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

or MIZPEH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, situated in a plain, about eighteen miles west of Jerusalem. Here Samuel dwelt; and here he called Israel together, to observe a solemn fast for their sins, and to supplicate God for his assistance against the Philistines; after which they sallied out on their enemies, already discomfited by the thunders of heaven, and gave them a total defeat, 1 Samuel 7. Here, also, Saul was anointed king, 1Sa_10:17-25. It appears that between this and the time of Asa, king of Judah, Mizpeh had suffered probably in some of the intervening wars, as we are told that Asa built it with the stones and timber of Ramah, 1Ki_15:22. There was another Mizpeh in Gilead; on the spot where Jacob set up the pillar or heap of stones, to commemorate the covenant there made between him and Laban, Gen_31:49. (See Gilead.) There was also a third Mizpeh, in the land of Moab, where David placed his father and mother, while he remained in his retreat at Adullam, 1Sa_22:3. It is to be observed, that Mizpeh implies a beacon or watch tower, a pillar or heap of commemoration; and at all the places bearing this name, it is probable that a single pillar, or a rude pile, was erected as the witness and the record of some particular event. These, subsequently, became altars and places of convocation on public occasions, religious and civil.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

The name Mizpah came from a common Hebrew word meaning ‘watchtower’ or ‘watchpost’, and was given to a number of places referred to in the Bible. The earliest mention is to a place that features in the story of Jacob where he and Laban made an agreement not to be treacherous to each other in future. They called the place Mizpah, since God was witness to their agreement, the one who ‘watched’ between them (Gen_31:44-50).
In relation to the history of the nation Israel, the most important town that had the name Mizpah was in the central hill country of Palestine. It was one of four administrative and religious centres that Samuel visited on his annual circuit (1Sa_7:5-12; 1Sa_7:16). The town was located in the tribal area of Benjamin and had previously featured in one of the most disastrous events in Benjamin’s early history (Jdg_20:1-7; Jdg_21:1-8). Israel’s first king, Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin, was publicly declared king in Mizpah (1Sa_10:17-24; for map see BENJAMIN).
During the period of the divided kingdom, Mizpah became an important defence outpost on Judah’s northern border with Israel (1Ki_15:22). After the destruction of Jerusalem it became the centre from which Gedaliah, the governor appointed by Babylon, administered the scattered remains of the former kingdom (2Ki_25:23; 2Ki_25:25; Jer_40:6-16; Jeremiah 41).
Other places in Palestine named Mizpah were near Mount Hermon in the far north (Jos_11:3), in Gilead east of Jordan (Jdg_10:17; Jdg_11:11; Jdg_11:29; Jdg_11:34), and in the low foothills west of the central highlands (Jos_15:38). There was also a Mizpah in Moab south-east of the Dead Sea (1Sa_22:3).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

Miz?pah. The word signifies a watch-tower, and is the name of several towns and places in lofty situations, whether furnished with a watch-tower or not.
Mizpah, 1
A town or city in Gilead (Jdg_10:17; Jdg_11:11; Jdg_11:34; Hos_5:1). The place originated in the heap of stones set up by Laban, and to which he gave his name (Gen_31:49). Some confound this with the Mizpeh of Gilead in Jdg_11:29; but it is better to distinguish them [MIZPEH OF GILEAD, 3].
Mizpah, 2
A city of Benjamin, where the people had used to convene (Jos_18:26; Jdg_20:1; Jdg_20:3; Jdg_21:1; 1Sa_7:5-16; 1Sa_10:17, sq.). It was afterwards fortified by Asa, to protect the borders against the kingdom of Israel (1Ki_15:22; 2Ch_16:6). In later times it became the residence of the governor under the Chaldeans (Jer_40:6, sq.; comp. Neh_3:7; Neh_3:15; Neh_3:19). Its position is nowhere mentioned in Scripture or by Josephus; but it could not have been far from Ramah, since King Asa fortified it with materials taken from that place; and that it was situated on an elevated spot is clear from its name. Neby Samwil, a poor village seated upon the summit of an elevated ridge about four and a half miles N.N.W. from Jerusalem, is supposed to correspond with the position of Mizpah.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Mizpah
(Heb. Mitspah', מַצְפָּה, Genesis 36:49; Jos_11:3; Jdg_10:17; Jdg_11:11; Jdg_11:34; Jdg_20:1; Jdg_20:5; Jdg_20:8; 1Sa_7:6; 1Sa_7:11-12; 1Sa_7:16; 1Sa_10:17; 1Ki_15:22; 2Ki_25:23; 2Ki_25:25 : 2Ch_16:6; Neh_3:7; Neh_3:15; Neh_3:19; Jer_40:6-15; Jer_41:1; Jer_41:3; Jer_41:6; Jeremiah 10, 14, 16; Hos_5:1; always [except in Hos_5:1] with the art.הִמַּצְפָה; Sept. Μασσηφά,Vulg. Maspha; but in Gen_31:49, Sept. ὅρασις,Vulg. omits; 1Sa_7:5-13; Vulg. Masphath; 1Ki_15:22, Sept. σκοπιά; 2Ch_16:6, Μασφά; Neh_3:19, Μασφέ v.r. Μασφαί; Hos_5:1, σκοπιά, speculatio), or Miz'peh (Heb. MitsSehb', מַצְפֶּה, Jos_11:8; Jdg_11:29; 1Sa_6:5-7; 1Sa_22:3; with the art. Jos_15:38; Jos_18:26; 2Ch_20:24; Sept. Μασσηφά, but σκοπιά in Jdg_11:29; Μασσηφάθ in 1Sa_22:3; Vulg. Maspha, but Masphe in Jos_11:8; Mesphe in Jos_18:-26), the name of several places (the Auth. Vers. “Mizpah” in Gen_31:49; 1Ki_15:22; 2Ki_25:23; 2Ki_25:25; 2Ch_16:6; Neh_3:7; Neh_3:15; Neh_3:19; Jeremiah 40, 41; Hos_5:1; elsewhere “Mizpeh”), signifying properly a beacon or watch-tower (as in Isa_21:8); hence also a lofty place, whence one can see far and wide over the country, whether furnished with a castle or not (as in 2Ch_20:24). (Mizpeh becomes Mizpah “in pause.”)
1. A place in Gilead, so named (in addition to its other names, GALEED and JEGAR-SAHADUTHA, both signifying the “heap of witness”) in commemoration of the compact formed by Jacob with Laban, who overtook him at this spot on his return to Palestine (Gen_31:49, where the word הִמִּצֵּבָהhas apparently fallen out of the text by reason of its similarity to the name itself, so that we should read “and he called the obelisk Mizpah” [see Gesenius, Thes. page 1179]. It would seem that the whole of Gen_31:49 is the language of Jacob, for it contains a play upon the Heb. [יַצֶ, yitseph] basis of the name Mizpeh, and also appeals to Jehovah; whereas Laban spoke Aramsean, and his language is resumed with Gen_31:50). This cannot be the Mizpeh of Gilead (see below), for it lay north of Mahanaim, on Jacob's route, which was southward towards the Jabbok (32, 2, 22). We are therefore to look for it in some of the eminences of that vicinity. It probably never became an inhabited locality.
2. Another place east of Jordan, called MIZPAH OF GILEAD (Auth. Vers. “Mizpeh”), where Jephthah assumed his victorious command of the assembled Israelites (Jdg_10:17; Jdg_11:11), and where he resided (Jdg_11:34), is probably the same with the RABIATH-MIZPEH of Gad (Jos_13:26), and may be identified with RAMATH-GILEAD SEE RAMATH-GILEAD (q.v.). Eusebius names it as a Levitical city in the tribe of Gad (Onomast. s.v. Μασφά).
3. Another place in Gilead, apparently a district inhabited by a branch of the Hivites, at the foot of Mount Hermon (Jos_11:3), and so named from a valley gast of Misrephoth-main and opposite Zidon (Jos_11:8); possibly the tract immediately west of Jebel Heish (see Keil, Comment. ad loc.). The idolatries practiced in this vicinity are alluded to in Hos_5:1 (see Schwarz, Palest. page 60). Pressel (in Herzog's Real- Encyklop. s.v.), ingeniously conjecturing that Mizpah (the fem. Heb. form of the name) is properly the country in general, and Mizpeh (the masc.) an individual place or town, understands in this case the land to be the entire plain of Paneas or Csesarea Philippi, now called the Ard el Huleh, and the valley to be that of the eastern source of the Jordan from Jebel Heish. Not much different is the view of Knobel and others in their commentaries, thinking of the country from Hasbeiya southward, and westward from Tell el-Kady, the ancient Dan. They refer in confirmation of their views to Robinson's account (Researches, 3:373) of a Druse village, built on a hill which rises 200 feet above the level of the plain, and commands a noble view of the great basin of the Hlleh; it bears the name of Mutulleh or Metelleh, an Arabic word of the same meaning as Mizpah, and employed to render it in Gen_31:49 by Saadias. Comp. Seetzen, Reisen dur-ch Syrien (Berl. 1857-59), 1:393 sq.; Ritter, Die Sinai-Halbinsel, Paldstina u. Syrien (Berl. 1850-51), volume 2, part 1, page 1121 sq.
4. A city of Benjamin (Jos_18:26), where the people were wont to convene on national emergencies (Jdg_20:1; Jdg_20:3; Jdg_21:1; Jdg_21:5; Jdg_21:8; 1Sa_7:5-16; 1Sa_10:17 sq.). It was afterwards fortified by Asa, to protect the borders against the kingdom of Israel (1Ki_15:22; 2Ch_16:6). In later times it became the residence of the governor under the Chaldeeans (2Ki_25:23; 2Ki_25:25; Jer_40:6 sq.; Jer_41:1), and was inhabited after the captivity (Neh_3:7; Neh_3:15; Neh_3:19). In the Jewish traditions it was for some time the residence of the ark (see Jerome, Qu. Hebr. on 1Sa_7:2; Reland. Antiq. 1:6); but this is possibly an inference from the expression “before Jehovah” in Jdg_20:1. Josephus frequently mentions it (Μασφάτη, Ant. 6:2, 1; Μασφαθά, 6:4, 4; 10:9, 2, 4, 5), once identifying it with Ramah (Μασφά, 8,13,4). From the account in 1Sa_7:5-16, it appears to have been near Gibeah, and it could not have been far from Ramah, since king Asa fortified it with materials taken from that place; and that it was situated on an elevated spot is clear from its name. On these grounds Dr. Robinson (Researches, 2:144) inclines to regard the modern village of Neby Samwil (“the prophet Samuel”) as the probable site of Mizpah, especially as in 1Ma_3:46 it is described as “over against Jerusalem,” implying that it was visible from that city. This place is now a poor village, seated upon the summit of a ridge, about 600 feet above the plain of Gibeon, being the most conspicuous object in all the vicinity. It contains a mosque, now in a state' of decay, which, on the ground of the apparently erroneous identification with Ramah, is regarded by Jews, Christians, and Moslems as the tomb of Samuel (see Schwarz, Palest. page 127).
The mosque was once a Latin church, built in the form of a cross, upon older foundations, and probably of the time of the Crusaders. There are many traces of former dwellings. The modern hamlet clusters at the eastern side of the mosque. The houses, about twelve in number, are either ancient or composed of ancient materials. Their walls are in places formed of the living rock hewn into shape, and some of the little courts are excavated to the depth of several feet.. There is thus an air of departed greatness and high antiquity about the place, which, added to its commanding situation, gives it an inexpressible charm (Porter, Hand-book, page 216; comp. Tobler, Zwei Biicher Topgraphie von Jerusalem- u. seine Unmgebungen [Berl. 1853,1854], 2:874 sq.). Mr. Williams (in Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog. s.v.) doubts this location, urging that Jer_41:5-6 appears to require a position more directly on the great route from Jerusalem to Samaria; but Neby Samwil is exactly on the route by which Johanan overtook the murderer of Gedaliah (Jer_41:12; comp. 2Sa_2:13). He suggests the modern village Shaphat, lying upon the ridge anciently called Scopus, as more likely to have been Mizpah; and Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, page 222) argues for a similar identity on the ground of the common signification of .these latter (i.q. look-out). This last place, however, is described by Josephus (Ant. 11:8, 5) in very: different terms from Mizpah (ut sup.), and Jerusalem is not visible from Shaphat (for which Dr. Bonar likewise contends, Land of Promise, Append. 8). SEE RAMAH.
5. A town in the plains of Judahb (Jos_15:38). Eusebius and Jerome identify it with a place which in their time bore the name of Alaspha (Onomast. s.v. Μασφά), on the borders of Eleutheropolis, northward, on the road to Jerusalem; perhaps the present Tell es-Safieh (Schwarz, Palest. page 103), the Alba Specula of the Crusaders (Robinson, Researches, 2:362-367), which was probably the GATH SEE GATH (q.v.) of later Biblical times.
6. A town of Moab to which David took his parents, lest they might be involved in Saul's persecution of himself (1Sa_22:3). His placing them there under the protection of the Moabitish king implies that it was the chief city, or royal-residence of the Moabites; and under that view we may, perhaps identify it as an appellative (i.q. the acropolis or stronghold of Moab) with KIR-MOAB SEE KIR-MOAB (q.v.) or Kerak.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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