direction may be mentioned diminution in offerings to God, and prohibition to partake of sacrificial
food. (Leviticus 7:20; 26:14) (k) Covering the “upper lip,” i.e. the lower part of the face, and
sometimes the head, in token of silence. (Leviticus 13:45; 2 Samuel 15:30; 19:4) (l) Cutting the
flesh, (Jeremiah 16:6,7; 41:5) beating the body. (Ezekiel 21:12; Jeremiah 31:19) (m) Employment
of persons hired for the purpose of mourning. (Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17; Amos 5:16;
Matthew 9:23) (n) Akin to the foregoing usage the custom for friends or passers-by to join in the
lamentations of bereaved or afflicted persons. (Genesis 50:3; Judges 11:40; Job 2:11; 30:25) etc.
(o) The sitting or lying posture in silence indicative of grief. (Genesis 23:3; Judges 20:26) etc. (p)
Mourning feast and cup of consolation. (Jeremiah 16:7,8)
•The period of mourning varied. In the case of Jacob it was seventy days, (Genesis 50:3) of Aaron,
(Numbers 20:29) and Moses, Deuteronomy 34:8 thirty. A further period of seven days in Jacob’s
case. (Genesis 50:10) Seven days for Saul, which may have been an abridged period in the time
of national danger. (1 Samuel 31:13) With the practices above mentioned, Oriental and other
customs, ancient and modern, in great measure agree. Arab men are silent in grief, but the women
scream, tear their hair, hands and face, and throw earth or sand on their heads. Both Mohammedans
and Christians in Egypt hire wailing-women, and wail at stated times. Burckhardt says the women
of Atbara in Nubia shave their heads on the death of their nearest relatives—a custom prevalent
also among several of the peasant tribes of upper Egypt. He also mentions wailing-women, and a
man in distress besmearing his face with dirt and dust in token of grief. In the “Arabian Nights”
are frequent allusions to similar practices. It also mentions ten days and forty days as periods of
mourning. Lane, speaking of the modern Egyptians, says, “After death the women of the family
raise cries of lamentation called welweleh or wilwal, uttering the most piercing shrieks, and calling
upon the name of the deceased, ’Oh, my master! Oh, my resource! Oh, my misfortune! Oh, my
glory!” See (Jeremiah 22:18) The females of the neighborhood come to join with them in this
conclamation: generally, also, the family send for two or more neddabehs or public wailing-women.
Each brings a tambourine, and beating them they exclaim, ’Alas for him!’ The female relatives,
domestics and friends, with their hair dishevelled and sometimes with rent clothes, beating their
faces, cry in like manner, ’Alas for him!’ These make no alteration in dress, but women, in some
cases, dye their shirts, head-veils and handkerchiefs of a dark-blue color. They visit the tombs at
stated periods.”—Mod. Eg. iii. 152,171,195.
Mouse
(the corn-eater). The name of this animal occurs in (Leviticus 11:29; 1 Samuel 6:4,5; Isaiah
66:17) The Hebrew word is in all probability generic, and is not intended to denote any particular
species of mouse. The original word denotes a field-ravager, and may therefore comprehend any
destructive rodent. Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. It is probable that in
(1 Samuel 6:5) the expression “the mice that mar the land” includes and more particularly refers
to the short-tailed field-mice (Arvicola agrestis, Flem.), which cause great destruction to the
corn-lands of Syria.
Mowing
As the great heat of the climate in Palestine and other similarly situated countries soon dries
up the herbage itself, hay-making in our sense of the term is not in use. The “king’s mowings,”
(Amos 7:1) may perhaps refer to some royal right of early pasturage for the use of the cavalry.
Moza
(fountain).
frankie
(Frankie)
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