MILCAIT (r1ZU ; Sept. MeXxd). 1. The daughter of Harare, sister of Lot, and wife of her uncle Nahor, Abraham's brother (Gen. xi. 29). Of her eight children the youngest, Bethuel, was the father of Rebekah (Gen. xxii. 22, 23 ; xxiv. is). 2. The fourth daughter of Zelophehad (Num. xxvi. 33 ; xxvii. I, etc.)—W. L. A.
MILE (,ttfXtou). This word is only mentioned in Matt. v. 41, where Christ says, And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.' The mile was originally (as its derivation from ' a thousand,' implies) a Roman measure of r000 geometrical paces (fiasslis) of five feet each, and was therefore equal to 5000 Roman feet. Taking the Roman foot at English inches, the Roman mile would be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the English statute mile. By another calculation, in which the foot is taken at inches, the mile would be little more than 1614 yards. The number of Roman miles in a
degree of a large circle of the earth is very little more than seventy-five. The most common Latin term for the mile is mills passuum, or only the initials M.P. ; sometimes the word passnum is omitted, The Roman mile contained eight Greek stadia (see Smith's Diet. of Greek and Rom. Antiy., art. Milliare). The Greek stade hence bore the same relation to the Roman mile which the English furlong does to the English mile : and it is indeed usual with the earlier writers on Biblical geography to translate the Greek stade ' into the English furlong,' in stating the measurements of Eusebius and Jerome. As the measurements of these writers are often cited in the present work, it is necessary to remember that their mile is always the Roman mile.—J. K.