METHEG-AMMAH (rinNr) 1.1?:). In the A.V. of 2 Sam. viii. i we read, David took Metheg-,4mwzah out of the hand of the Philis tines ; ' but in the margin instead of Metheg Ammah ' is the bridle of Ammah.' It seems most probable that the sacred writer did not give the word as a proper name, but as a descriptive epithet. It is not found in any other part of the Bible, nor in any ancient writer. The parallel passage in Chron. xviii. I is, in the Hebrew, word for word the same as this, except that instead of Metlieg Ammah,' it has Gath and her daughters' r1'7i=1) ; it would seem, therefore, that the phrase Metheg-Ammah ' must be in some sense equi valent to Gatti and her daughters.' The word Metheg signifies bridle ;' and Amman (rinN) is the same as ens (12V), 'mother,' which, like the Arabic um (f'0' may mean `metropolis' (cf. 2 Sam. xx. 19). Ofetheg-haammah (for it has the article) may therefore mean the bridle (that is, the command or government ') of the metropolis.' Thus interpreted, the parallel passages are identi cal in meaning. Gaza was the metropolis of Philistia. When David took Gaza and her daughters,' he took the government of the metro polis' from the Philistines. This is substantially
the interpretation of Gesenius, who thus translates the clause, et sumsit Davides frenum metropoleos e manu Philistaorum ; i. e., metropolin Philistmorum sibi subjecit ' (Thesaurus, p. 113).
The LXX. renders the clause eXafie Aata Trlv € y K. T. X. • though what is meant by itOwinapimp, or how Illetheg-haammah could be so rendered, it is now impossible to tell. The Vulgate has frenum tributi, bridle of bond age,' a translation which the Hebrew will not legitimately bear, though Forster (Diet. Heb.) tries to defend it by saying that Metheg-haammak means literally frenunt cubiti, which is equivalent to frenum tributi seu subjectionis. Others sup pose Anzmah to be the name of a mountain at or near Gath, mentioned by Pliny (v. 13) as Anzgar ; and the bridle of Ammah ' was thus equivalent to Gath (so Pool, Patrick). Other interpretations are given by GI assius (Philolog. Sac., p. 639), but they are not worth recording. J. L. P.