the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mount, Mountain
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MOUNT, MOUNTAIN . Although on the whole a mountainous country, Palestine has few striking or commanding peaks to show; consequently, though we find frequent mention of mountains in the Bible, there are comparatively few names of individual summits. ‘Mountain,’ as well as its cognate ‘mount,’ is used both of isolated elevations and of extensive districts of lofty ground such as Sinai, Horeb, Carmel on the one hand, Mount Seir or the Mountain of Gilead on the other.
Mountains served various functions to the ancient inhabitants of the land. (1) They were dwelling-places , for which the numerous caves, natural and artificial, excavated in their soft limestone sides, well fitted them: thus Esau dwelt in Mount Seir ( Genesis 36:8 ). (2) They served the purpose of landmarks : thus Mount Hor was indicated ( Numbers 34:7 ) as a boundary of the Promised Land. (3) They were used as platforms , for addressing large crowds of people, as in the famous ceremony at Ebal and Gerizim ( Joshua 8:30 ff.), in the address of Jotham to the Shechemites ( Judges 9:7 ), and that of Abijah to the Ephraimites ( 2 Chronicles 13:4 ). (4) They were burial-places (‘sepulchres that were in the mount,’ 2 Kings 23:16 ). (5) They served as refuges ( Genesis 14:10 , Matthew 24:16 ); (6) as military camps ( 1 Samuel 17:3 ); (7) as sources of wood and plants ( 2 Chronicles 2:18 , Nehemiah 8:15 , Haggai 1:8 ); (8) as watch-towers and look-out stations ( Ezekiel 40:2 , Matthew 4:8 ); (9) as pasturage ( Psalms 50:10 , Luke 8:32 ); (10) as fortresses ( Psalms 125:2 ). Their obvious fitness for typifying strength and endurance gives rise to metaphors and comparisons to be found in almost every book of both Testaments.
But it is in their aspect as holy places that mountains are of the deepest interest to the student of the Scriptures or of Palestine. In modern Palestine almost every hill a little loftier or more striking than its fellows is crowned by a domed shrine, now regarded as the tomb of a Moslem saint, but no doubt the representative of a sacred precinct that goes back to the earliest Semitic inhabitants of the land. Sinai, Horeb, Carmel occur to the memory at once as mountains consecrated by a theophany. The worship at ‘ high places ’ was so deeply engrained in the Hebrews that no amount of legislation could eradicate it; the severe discipline of the Exile was needed for its destruction.
R. A. S. Macalister.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Mount, Mountain'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/mount-mountain.html. 1909.
