the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Mirrors
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or usually, but improperly, rendered looking glasses. The eastern mirrors were made of polished metal, and for the most part convex. So Callimachus describes Venus as "taking the shining brass," that is, to adjust her hair. If they were thus made in the country of Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively: "Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?" Job 37:18 . Shaw informs us that "in the Levant, looking glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goats skin, to fetch water." The Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their most solemn place of worship. The word mirror should be used in the passages here referred to. To speak of "looking glasses made of steel," and "glasses molten," is palpably absurd; whereas the term mirror obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the original.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Mirrors'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/m/mirrors.html. 1831-2.
