which exudes from the bark is at first oily, but becomes hard by exposure to the air. (This myrrh
is in small yellowish or white globules or tears. The tree is small, with a stunted trunk, covered
with light-gray bark, It is found in Arabia Felix. The myrrh of (Genesis 37:25) was probably
ladalzum, a highly-fragrant resin and volatile oil used as a cosmetic, and stimulative as a medicine.
It is yielded by the cistus, known in Europe as the rock rose, a shrub with rose-colored flowers,
growing in Palestine and along the shores of the Mediterranean.—ED.) For wine mingled with
myrrh see Gall.
Myrtle
a plant mentioned in (Nehemiah 8:15; Isaiah 41:19; 55:13; Zechariah 1:8,10,11) The modern
Jews still adorn with myrtle the booths and sheds at the feast of tabernacles. Formerly, as we learn
from Nehemiah, (Nehemiah 8:15) myrtles grew on the hills about Jerusalem. “On Olivet.” says
Dean Stanley, “nothing is now to be seen but the olive and the fig tree:” on some of the hills near
Jerusalem, however, Hasselquist observed the myrtle. Dr. Hooker says it is not uncommon in
Samaria and Galilee. The Myrtus communis is the kind denoted by the Hebrew word. (It is a shrub
or low tree sometimes ten feet high, with green shining leaves, and snow-white flowers bordered
with purple, “which emit a perfume more exquisite than that of the rose.” The seeds of the myrtle,
dried before they are ripe, form our allspice.—ED.)
Mysia
(land of beech trees) (Acts 16:7,8) was the region about the frontier of the provinces of Asia
and Bithynia. The term is evidently used in an ethnological, not a political, sense.
Naam
(pleasantness), one of the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh. (1 Chronicles 4:15) (B.C. about
1451-1420.)
Naamah
one of the towns of Judah in the district of the lowland or Shefelah. (Joshua 15:41) Capt. Warren,
in Report of Palestine Exploration Fund, 1871, locates it at Naameh, six miles northeast of Yebna.
(loveliness).
•One of the four women whose names are preserved in the records of the world before the flood;
all except Eve being Cainites. Site was daughter of Lamech by his wife Zillah, and sister, as is
expressly mentioned to Tubal-cain (Genesis 4:22) only. (B.C. about 3550.)
•Mother of King Rehoboam. (1 Kings 14:21,31; 2 Chronicles 12:13) In each of these passages she
is distinguished by the title “the (not ’an,’ as in Authorized Version) Ammonite.” She was therefore
one of the foreign women whom Solomon took into his establishment. (1 Kings 11:1) (B.C.
1015-975.)
Naaman
(pleasantness).
•“Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4:27) Naaman was commander-in-chief of the army of Syria, and
was nearest to the person of the king, Ben-hadad II., whom he accompanied officially and supported
when he went to worship in the temple of Rimmon, (2 Kings 5:18) at Damascus, the capital. (B.C.
885.) A Jewish tradition at least as old as the time of Josephus, and which may very well be a
genuine one identifies him with the archer whose arrow, whether at random or not, struck Ahab