The period of mourning for the dead varied. For Jacob it was seventy days
(Genesis 50:3); for Aaron (Numbers 20:29) and Moses (Deuteronomy
34:8) thirty days; and for Saul only seven days (1 Samuel 31:13). In 2
Samuel 3:31-35, we have a description of the great mourning for the death
of Abner.
- MOUSE Hebrews ‘akhbar, “swift digger”), properly the dormouse, the
field-mouse (1 Samuel 6:4). In Leviticus 11:29, Isaiah 66:17 this word is
used generically, and includes the jerboa (Mus jaculus), rat, hamster
(Cricetus), which, though declared to be unclean animals, were eaten by the
Arabs, and are still eaten by the Bedouins. It is said that no fewer than
twenty-three species of this group (‘akhbar=Arab. ferah) of animals
inhabit Palestine. God “laid waste” the people of Ashdod by the terrible
visitation of field-mice, which are like locusts in their destructive effects (1
Samuel 6:4, 11, 18). Herodotus, the Greek historian, accounts for the
destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35) by saying that in
the night thousands of mice invaded the camp and gnawed through the
bow-strings, quivers, and shields, and thus left the Assyrians helpless.
(See SENNACHERIB.) - MOWING (Hebrews gez), rendered in Psalm 72:6 “mown grass.” The
expression “king’s mowings” (Amos 7:1) refers to some royal right of
early pasturage, the first crop of grass for the cavalry (comp. 1 Kings
18:5). - MOZA a going forth. (1.) One of the sons of Caleb (1 Chronicles 2:46).
(2.) The son of Zimri, of the posterity of Saul (1 Chronicles 8:36, 37; 9:42,
43).
- MOZAH an issuing of water, a city of Benjamin (Joshua 18:26).
- MUFFLERS (Isaiah 3:19), veils, light and tremulous. Margin, “spangled
ornaments.” - MULBERRY Hebrews bakah, “to weep;” rendered “Baca” (R.V.,
“weeping”) in Psalm 84:6. The plural form of the Hebrew bekaim is
rendered “mulberry trees” in 2 Samuel 5:23, 24 and 1 Chronicles 14:14, 15.
The tree here alluded to was probably the aspen or trembling poplar. “We
know with certainty that the black poplar, the aspen, and the Lombardy
poplar grew in Palestine. The aspen, whose long leaf-stalks cause the
leaves to tremble with every breath of wind, unites with the willow and