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Mazor

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(Heb. Matsor', מָצוֹר ), a name occurring only in the original, and which the traslators of the A. V. ("besieged places," 2 Kings 19:24; Isaiah 37:25; "fortified cities," Micah 7:12; "defense," Isaiah 19:6) have confounded with a word of the same form signifying a fortress (as in Psalms 31:22; Habakkuk 2:1, etc.). Gesenius, however (Thesaur. Heb. p. 815), regards it as a title of Egypt, and apparently Lower Egypt, as, in three out of the four passages where it occurs, it is in the phrase יְאֹרֵי מָצוֹר, the streams or canals of Egypt, i. e. the branches of the Nile (Isaiah 19:6; Isaiah 37:25; 2 Kings 19:24); and that it comes from the Egpytian word meduro, a kingdom; perhaps the sing. of the dual form Mizriailum, מִצְרִיַם q. d. double Egypt (comp. Josephus, Ant. 1:6, 2). Others (see Bochart, Phaleag, 4:24), as probably the Hebrews themselves, considered Egypt to be so called as being strongly fortified (see Died. Sic. 1:31). (See EGYPT); (See FORTRESS).