MISREPHOTH-MAIM own-rinvn ; pthp ; Alex. Mao-pcOiA. Mac(u, in Josh. xi. 8 ; but Mao-zpe9 Mc,u0coicala ; Alex. MacEpeq5thb--,t.a(p., ix xiii. 6 ; ague Maserephoth), a place mentioned only by Joshua, first, in describing his victory over the Canaanites, who had arrayed themselves against him at the Waters of Merom : He chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward' (xi. 8) ; and second, in defining those parts of the Land of Pro mise which still remained to be conquered at his death : All the inhabitants of the hill country, from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim, all the Sido nians' (xiii. 6). Its locality is not specified ; but it seems to have been connected with Sidon ; if not with the city itself, at least with the district of which it was the capital.
Great difference of opinion exists among critics as to the meaning of the words. The rendering of Aquila is MacrpasoeA- fikros, and of Symmachus M. %-aXdoo-ns. The Targum interprets fossee aqua rum, which is generally followed by the Jewish Rabbins (Gesenius, Thes., p. 134i ; Keil on 3oshzia, ad loc.) Others adopt the view of the Arabic ver sion, and suppose some place is referred to in which there were warm springs.' The root riT signifies to burn,' and hence it is supposed rell'ln may mean burning or heated.' Others again think that reference is made to some place along the coast where sea-water was put in tanks and evaporated by the heat of the sun, so as to obtain the deposit of salt. There are such salt pans at Sidon to this day. Still another opinion is, that furnaces for the manufacture of glass are referred to (Lengerke).
An attempt has been made by Schultz and Thomson to identify Misrephoth-maim with a ruin called Musheirefeh, on the northern border of the plain of Akka, near Ras en-Nalcura (The Land and the Book, p. 215 ; Van de Velde, Memoir, 335); but this place appears to be much too far south to agree with the Biblical narrative. The site must be regarded as still unknown ; and the signification of the name is mere matter of conjecture.—J. L. P.
MITE (Xerrbv), a copper coin current in Pales tine in the time of our Lord. It derived its name from a small Greek copper coin, of which at Athens seven went to the xaXKoiis. (Suidas, s. vv. reiXaprov, 6(0A6s). It is mentioned by St. Mark (xii. 42), and St. Luke (xii. 59 ; xxi. 2). According to St. Mark (Z. e.) it was the half of the farthing—Aerra, Ito I Ian KoSpciPrns—' two mites which make a farthing.' The explanation I icrn KoSpcivris is omitted in the parallel passage in St. Luke (xxi. 2). These words of St. Mark have caused some dis agreement as regards their correct meaning. Cave doni (Bibl. Man., vol. p. 76) has supposed that St. Mark meant to say one lepton was of the value of one quadrats,' for had he intended to express that two of the small pieces of money were equal to a quadrans, then he must have written ECTL instead of 8 eCIT4 KoSpdvrns ; and the Vulg. has also very correctly translated quad est, but not qua sunt. Another argument adduced is that the words of our Lord in the parallel passages of St. Matthew (v. 26) and St. Luke (xii. 59) prove that the quadrans is the same as the lepton. In the former passage the words are gcrxarov KoSpdvrnv, and in the latter loxarov Xerrbe. A third argu ment, deemed by Cavedoni to be conclusive, as sumes that the quadrans only weighed 30 grains, and that if the quadrans equalled two fella, there would be coins existing at the time of our Saviour of the weight of 15.44 grains.
It is a question if the first of the arguments here brought forward is of much value, and though by some (Bland, Annot. to N. T., in loc.) it has been stated that the 8 ea-7-z zcoopcivrzg is a marginal quota tion which has crept into text, and by others (Alford, in loc.) that it was probably an explanation for the Roman readers, it does not seem that the Greek is sufficiently incorrect to warrant our adopt ing Cavedoni's suggestion.