the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mizpah
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Mizpah (mĭs'pah) and Mizpeh (miz'peh), watch-tower. The name of several places in Palestine. 1. On Mount Gilead, also called Mizpeh of Gilead, Judges 11:29, and elsewhere, probably Ramoth-mizpeh, Joshua 13:26, and Ramoth-gilead, 1 Kings 4:13, and elsewhere, the place where Laban and Jacob set up a heap of stones as a witness and landmark between them. Genesis 31:23; Genesis 31:25; Genesis 31:48; Genesis 31:52. Here, also, the Israelites assembled to fight against the Ammonites, Judges 10:17; and here Jephthah was met by his daughter. Judges 11:29. Some suppose that this was the place also where the tribes assembled to avenge the great sin committed in Benjamin, Judges 20:1; Judges 20:3; Judges 21:1; Judges 21:5; Judges 21:8; but this is more usually applied to the Mizpah in Benjamin. See No. 6. This Mizpah has been identified, with great probability, with Kulat er Rubad on the Wady ʾAjlûn, about ten miles east of the Jordan. The summit commands a wide view, and is in harmony with the name Mizpeh, or "watch-tower." 2. Mizpeh of Moab, where the king of that nation was living when David committed his parents to his care, 1 Samuel 22:3; possibly now Kerak. 3. The land of Mizpeh, in the north of Palestine, the residence of the Hivites, Joshua 11:3; possibly identical with—4. The valley of Mizpeh, Joshua 11:3; Joshua 11:8, whither the confederate hosts were pursued by Joshua; perhaps the modern Bukaʾa, the great country of Cœle-Syria, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. 5. A city in Judah, Joshua 15:38; possibly identical with the modern Tell es-Sâfiyeh. This others have identified with Misrephothmaim. Joshua 11:8. 6. A city in Benjamin, Joshua 18:26, where Israel assembled. 1 Samuel 7:5-7; 1 Samuel 7:11-12; 1 Samuel 7:16. Here Saul was elected king. 1 Samuel 10:17-21. Asa fortified Mizpah, 1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chronicles 16:6; it was where Gedaliah was assassinated, 2 Kings 25:23; 2 Kings 25:25; Jeremiah 40:6-15; Jeremiah 41:1-16; the men of Mizpah joined in rebuilding a par of the wall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 3:7; Nehemiah 3:15; Nehemiah 3:19. Probably identical with Neby Samwil, standing on a peak about four miles northwest of Jerusalem. Whether the Mizpah of Hosea 5:1, was in Benjamin or in Gilead is uncertain.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Mizpah'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/m/mizpah.html. 1893.
