his hand' (Num. xxi. 24-26). The country of the Moabites was anciently possessed by the Emims, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakims' (Gen. xiv. 5; Deut. ii. 9-11). The Israelites having conquered Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, Balak the king of Moab took the alarm, and sent to Mesopotamia for Balaam, a noted soothsayer, to come and curse them; but, withheld by God, instead of cursing them, he pronounced blessings upon them (Num. xxi. 20-25, 31-35; xxii. 1-6; xxiii. 24). But now the people of Israel began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods,' for the Moabites were already idolaters, worshippers of Chemosh and Baalpeor (xxi. 29; xxv. 1-3). To punish their wickedness it was enacted that 'a Moabite or an Ammonite should not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation' (Deut. xxiii. 3). After the Israelites had been settled in Canaan for a considerable period Eglon the king of Moab, aided by the Ammonites and Amalekites, 'smote them, and possessed the city of palmtrees' and they served him eighteen years; but he was then assassinated by Ehud a Benjamite; and Israel 'slew of Moab at that time about 10,000 men, all men of valour: so Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel' (Judg. iii. 12-30). Some time before, or not long after these events, there was a famine in Canaan, and a Bethlehemite named Elimelech, and his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion, went into the country of Moab. There the two young men took them wives of the women of Moab, the one named Orpah, the other Ruth-circumstances which are embodied in one of the most beautifully simple narratives of Holy Writ (Ruth i.-iv.) Saul, after he took the kingdom over Israel, fought against all his enemies on every side,' amongst others, against Moab; and whithersoever he turned himself he vexed them' (1 Sam. xiv. 47). David

smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive and so the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts' (2 Sam. viii. 2). Moab was afterwards tributary to the king of Israel, of which we have the following account: And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams, with the wool; but when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.' This led on to a war, in which the Moabites were defeated and their country was laid waste; but it does not appear that the tribute was again renewed (2 Kings i. 1; iii. 4-27). Not long after, or perhaps shortly before this, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites came against Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and, passing Engedi on the west side of the Dead Sea, had advanced toward the wilderness of Tekoa; but now they fell out among themselves, and attacked and slaughtered each other, and left behind them immense spoil (2 Chron. xx. 1-4, 20-25). About the time of Elisha's death bands of the Moabites invaded

MOLECH

the land of Israel (2 Kings xiii. 20). Heavy judgments are denounced on Moab by several of the prophets by Isaiah (xv. xvi. xxv. 1-12); by Jeremiah (xxv. 21; xlviii. 1-46); by Ezekiel (xxv. 8-11); by Amos (ii. 1-3); by Zephaniah (ii. 8-11).

The only historical notice which we have of the Moabites in the Scriptures, after the Babylonish captivity, is of the Jews intermarrying with them and the neighbouring heathen nations: Yea, the princes and rulers had been chief in this trespass,' including numbers of the priests and Levites; but Ezra required them to separate themselves from their strange wives, a measure to which they appear to have generally agreed, though some of them had children by them (Ezra ix. 1, 2; x. 9-44). The evil was not, however, put an end to; for Nehemiah, some years later, says: 'In those days saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;' and though he sought to check the practice, there is no proper evidence that he was successful (Neh. xiii. 23-30). There is, however, a prophetical notice of Moab in Dan. xi. 41, the reference of which is much later, the passage being commonly understood of the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; and Josephus, in his account of Alexander Jannæus, mentions the cities between the Arnon and the Jabbok under the name of the cities of Moab (Antiq. xiii. 15). Afterwards the names Moab and Moabites disappear, being probably merged along with those of some other nations in that quarter of the world in the general name of Arabs, and until the present century the country ceased to be visited by travellers from the West.

MOLE, a small four-footed animal which ferrets in the earth, has its feet formed for digging, its eyes very small, and hence it is believed by the vulgar to be blind. It lives on roots, insects, and worms; but that the Hebrew word tinshemeth signifies a mole we are not prepared to affirm, though the Jewish rabbins and the Chaldee paraphrasts so interpret it. Bochart will have it to signify a chameleon, Castalio a toad, and others a weasel. It is certain it was legally unclean (Lev. xi. 30). In ver. 18 the same word is translated a swan.

In Is. ii. 20 it is said, a man shall cast idols to the moles and to the bats: that is, he shall throw them away with the utmost contempt. The word here employed is a different word from that in Leviticus. Gesenius understands by it a digging animal; and though he does not reject the sense mole, he appears to think it might perhaps be better rendered rat, so called from its digging (Gesenius, Lex. 297).

MO'LECH, MOLOCH, MIL'COM, the principal god of the Ammonites. He must have been early an object of worship, for God prohibited the Israelites from worshipping him while they were yet in the wilderness (Lev. xviii. 21; xx. 2-5); but notwithstanding this prohibition it would almost seem, from what Stephen says, that they had worshipped Molech in the wilderness (Acts vii. 42, 43). Solomon built an high-place on the hill that is before Jerusalem (the Mount of Olives) for Molech the abomina tion of the children of Ammon' (1 Kings xi. 7).

Among the acts of idolatrous worship in ancient | times was the horrible rite of parents sacrificing their children, making their sons or their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech (2 Kings xxiii. 10). Some indeed would explain this as merely signifying that they caused them to pass between two fires in honour of the idol; but it is quite plain that the unhappy victims were actually burned or sacrificed (Ps. cvi. 37, 38; Jer. vii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 20; xxiii. 37, 39). This horrible rite is often spoken of as if it was peculiar to the worship of Molech; but it was also a rite in the worship of Baal (Jer. xix. 5; xxxii. 35), and perhaps also of other idols (2 Kings iii. 27; Micah vi. 7). Ahaz, Manasseh, and probably others of the kings practised this horrible rite (2 Kings xvi. 3; xxi. 6). The statue of Molech has been described as of brass, of the human form, with outstretched arms and hollow within. In the hollow fire was kindled; and the unhappy victim was put into the burning arms of the statue, where it expired amidst horrible pains, drums meanwhile being beat to drown its cries; but there is no evidence that this description applies to the Molech of the O. T.

MONEY. The most ancient method of trade was by barter, exchanging one thing for another; in after-times the more precious metals were used as the price in merchandise. Gold and silver, however, when thus employed, were long weighed, not coined. Abraham weighed the 400 shekels of silver which he gave for a buryingplace. It is called 'money current with the merchant' (Gen. xxiii. 15,16). Joseph was sold for twenty shekels' weight of silver; and his brethren carried back to Egypt the same weight of money that had been returned in their sacks (Gen. xxxvii. 28; xliii. 21). Jeremiah weighed the seventeen shekels of silver which he gave for his cousin's field (Jer. xxxii. 10). Shekels and talents whereby money was estimated were weights, not coins (2 Sam. xii. 30; xiv. 26).

At the present day much of the trade of the world is carried on by barter or in the way of exchange, particularly with barbarous and semibarbarous nations. Even in China this is to a great extent the case in both the home and the foreign trade, and a large portion of its commerce is carried on with sycee silver, which is not coined but weighed.

The question of the first invention of coined money is one of those questions which it is im possible to solve, and on which it is only possible to arrive at a probable opinion. There can be no doubt that the precious metals were selected in various places, quite independently of each other, to serve as the common medium of exchange a use for which they are better adapted than any other commodity. But whether the practice of stamping certain masses of them with an authoritative stamp, and as a guarantee of their being of the alleged weight and purity, arose in one place only, and then spread from a single centre gradually over the world, or whether the idea occurred separately to several nations, will perhaps never be determined. Herodotus, who travelled in so many countries, and who was everywhere so diligent in collecting information, appears to have been

convinced that the practice of coining money originated not with the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Phrygians, or the Greeks, but with the Lydians, who were the first he says to coin both gold and silver. We have no authority in favour of any other country equal to that of Herodotus.

It is very remarkable that among the numer ous remains of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquity which have come down to us not a single coin has yet been found. Had Assyria or Babylonia possessed a coinage it is almost impossible but that the researches which have been prosecuted of late years with so much success throughout Mesopotamia should have failed to bring to light a single specimen. Clay tablets, commemorating grants of money specifically by weight have been found in considerable numbers, but not a coin or the trace of a coin has been discovered. On the other hand, within a circuit of some thirty miles round Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia, a number of gold and silver coins have been found of a peculiar type and of the rudest character and execution. The staters of Lydia are not of pure gold, but of electrum, or three parts of gold and one of silver. They were mere lumps or dumps of a certain weight, often cracked at the edge, from being suddenly flattened by the blow. They were impressed with a lion's head or other emblem on one side only.

Previous to the Babylonish captivity it would appear that the money dealings of the Hebrews were entirely conducted by weighing it; but in Ezra ii. 69 and Neh. vii. 70-72 we read of

177, which, though it is rendered in the E. T. drams, is generally considered by critics to signify darics, a Persian gold coin originally issued by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, after whom it was so called. The impression on this coin exhibited on one side the representation of a king, on the other an archer, having on his head an accuminated tiara, and holding in his left hand a bow, and in his right hand an arrow. The oldest coins of real gold were those of Darius. Golden and also silver darics are preserved in the numismatic museums of Paris and Vienna (Jahn, Bib. Antiq. 57; Wilkinson in Herodot. ii. 150; Gesenius, Lex. 15). The resemblance of the daric in form, style, and weight to the coins of Lydia shews that Darius took them for his pattern when he struck a coinage for Persia (Jour. Sac. Lit. January 1855, vol. vii. p. 471).

There is no indication that the Jewish shekel was, up to the age of the Maccabees, anything more than a denomination of weight, as its name implies. About 140 B.C. Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, gave permission to Simon Maccabæus, the priest and prince of the Jews,' to coin money for his country with his own stamp upon it (1 Maccab. xv. 1-6; Edin. Rev. civ. 164, 166).

Though Jewish money continued to circulate in the country after it fell under the power of the Romans, yet Roman coins were also now brought into circulation. When the chief priests and scribes sought to ensnare our Lord by the question, 'Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cæsar or no?' he met them by saying: "Shew me a denarius. Whose image and superscrip

MONEY-CHANGERS

MOON

Gerah

The following tables of moneys mentioned in the Scriptures are taken from Dr. Arbuth

10 Bekah.

20 2 Shekel

60,000 6000 3000 60 Talent.

MONEY-CHANGERS. The word is apt to suggest to our minds the idea of persons who gave smaller pieces of money in exchange for larger, according to a practice common among ourselves; but though it is probable enough they might in some cases do this, it is likely they chiefly corresponded to the money-changers of Paris and other continental cities, who in exchange for the moneys of foreigners give the coins current in their respective countries. In the time of our Lord multitudes of Jews came yearly from other countries to worship at Jerusalem, particularly at the great festivals. As they would of course bring with them Roman, Greek, and other coins, and these had often on them figures of the emperors and other princes, with their respective superscriptions, and probably not unfrequently of heathen temples and other heathen symbols; and as it would in all likelihood be deemed profanation to receive these into the treasury, or even to introduce them into common circulation there, thence arose the practice of money-changers having tables at which they took these in exchange for shekels and other Jewish moneys. It appears that the money-changers, and others who carried on traffic in the temple, were anything but distinguished for their honesty. It is written,' said our Lord, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.'

For a further account of these moneys, and in some instances of a different value set upon them, see the respective articles. Wilkinson, for example, says the daric was worth about £1:1:10 (Wilkinson in Herodot. ii. 151).

342 3 9

(Matt xxi. 12, 13; see also John ii. 15, 16). Some money-exchangers appear to have acted as a kind of bankers, receiving money and granting interest upon it (Matt. xxv. 27).

MONTH. [TIME, DIVISIONS OF.]

MOON, THE, is not a planet like our earth, or as Mercury, Venus, or Jupiter, which all revolve round the sun, but a satellite to our earth, and moves round in 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes, at the mean distance of about 237,000 miles, and at about the rate of 2270 miles per hour. It not only moves monthly round the earth, but accompanies it in its annual circuit round the sun, both of them revolving round it as their common centre of gravity. It has a diameter of 2160 miles, and accordingly is much less than the earth, which is about 3 times larger. It is a remarkable circumstance that the moon, though it turns upon its axis, always presents to us the same face. We have no knowledge of the other side.

The physical constitution of the moon is better known to us than that of any of the other heavenly bodies. By the aid of telescopes we discern inequalities in its surface which can be nothing else than mountains and valleys. These mountains are very numerous, and there occur among them all degrees of elevation up to 22,823 feet, or about 1400 feet higher than Chimborazo in the Andes. The generality of them present a striking uniformity and singularity of aspect. They are wonderfully numerons, especially to the southern portion of the disc, occupying by far the larger portion of the surface, and are almost universally of an exactly circular or cup-shaped form; but the larger have, for the most part, flat bottoms within, from which rises centrally a small, steep, conical hill. They offer, in short, in its highest perfection, the true volcanic character as it may be seen in the crater of Vesuvius, but with this remarkable peculiarity, that the bottoms of many of the craters are very deeply depressed below the general surface of the moon, the internal depth being often two or three times the external height. In some of the principal ones decisive marks of volcanic stratification, arising from successive deposits of ejected matter, and evident indications of lava-currents streaming outwards in all directions, may be clearly traced with powerful telescopes. What, moreover, is ex

tremely singular in the geology of the moon is, that although nothing having the character of seas can be traced, yet there are large regions perfectly level and apparently of a decided alluvial character.

The moon has no clouds nor any other decisive indications of an atmosphere. Hence the climate of the moon must be very extraordinary; the alternation being that of unmitigated and burning sunshine, fiercer than an equatorial noon, continued for a whole fortnight, and the keenest severity of frost, far exceeding that of our polar winters, for an equal time. It is possible that certain circumstances may, to some extent, preserve an equilibrium of temperature and mitigate the severity of both climates; but this process, if it goes on at all, must be confined within very narrow limits.

Though the surface of the full moon exposed to us must necessarily be very much heated, yet we feel no heat from it, and even in the focus of large reflectors it fails to affect the thermometer. It therefore appears that its heat never reaches the earth at all.

Telescopes must yet be greatly improved before we can expect to see signs of inhabitants, as manifested by edifices or by changes on the surface of the soil. Owing to the want of air, however, it seems impossible that any form of life analagous to the forms seen on earth can subsist there. No appearances indicating vegetation, or the slightest variation of surface which can, in Sir John Herschel's opinion, fairly be ascribed to change of season, can anywhere be discerned (Herschel, Outlines, 239, 258, 261, 262).

sun.

The moon is an opaque body like the earth, and shines only by reflecting the light of the When the earth, in its circuit in the heavens, comes between the sun and the moon, the moon falls into the earth's penumbra or shadow, and having no light of her own she suffers an eclipse from the interception of the sun's rays. On the other hand, when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, the sun is eclipsed to the inhabitants of our globe. Eclipses, however, are only occasionally total: most commonly they are only partial, and they vary in extent according to the extent of the penumbra or shadow where it falls.

The moon is the chief cause of the tides of the ocean as a result of the law of universal gravitation. Though partly influenced by the sun, they are chiefly produced by the influence of the moon the sun's influence is only known by its increasing or diminishing her more powerful action.

It has been long an established and generallyreceived opinion, that the phases of the moon have a certain influence upon the weather, and various prognostications have accordingly been founded upon them; but of any material influence of the moon on the weather there is no decisive evidence (Herschel, Outlines, 261).

The moon was a chief measure of time among the Hebrews, and regulated their feasts and other ceremonies and customs. Frequent reference is particularly made to the new moons (1 Sam. xx. 5; Ps. lxxxi. 3; Is. i. 13, 14). The Mandingoes, and other negro tribes, like the Hebrews of old, measure time by moons.

In the East, where the moon, traversing a clear and cloudless sky, shines forth with peculiar beauty, it early became an object of worship, but in different countries under different names. It was the moon which the Phoenicians worshipped under the name of Ashtaroth—a form or idolatry to which the Israelites appear to have been peculiarly prone (Deut. iv. 19; xvii. 3; Judges ii. 11, 13; x. 6; 1 Sam. vii. 3, 4; 1 Kings xi. 5). It was no doubt the moon which the remnant of Judah who, when the body of the nation were carried captive to Babylon, escaped to Egypt, and particularly the women, worshipped under the name of the Queen of Heaven (Jer. xliv. 17-19, 25). To the early worship of the moon in Arabia we have distinct references in Job xxxi. 26-28).

Insanity was long ascribed to the influence of the moon, as one of its causes. Hence the words lunatic and lunacy, from luna, the moon; but this idea is now considered to be a vulgar error, and is generally discarded by medical

men.

MORI'AH, a district of country in Canaan.

In this quarter, which was hilly, Jerusalem stood; and on one of the hills, which was specially called Mount Moriah, the temple was afterwards built. Perhaps it was on this hill that Isaac was proposed to be offered up (Gen. xxii. 2; 2 Chron. iii. 1).

MORNING. 1. That part of the day before The light, which by its spread forms the mornor about the rising of the sun (Mark xvi. 2). 2. ing (Joel ii. 2). The morning is represented as of the rising light in the sky (Job xli. 18); as having eyelids, to represent the first appearance having wings, to denote the quick spread of light (Ps. cxxxix. 9); and as having a womb, from which the dew is produced (Ps. cx. 3). In the morning is early, seasonably, earnestly, Every morning is daily, often (Ps. lxxiii. 14). suddenly (Ps. v. 3; xxx. 5). To execute judg seasonably and speedily as possible (Jer. xxi. 12; ment in the morning is to do it readily, and as Ps. ci. 8). unseasonable and intemperate eating and drinkTo eat in the morning denotes ing; luxury (Eccles. x. 16; Jer. v. 8).

MO'SES, the brother of Aaron and Miriam, and younger than the former by three years, was born, according to the common chronology B. C. 1571 (Exod. vi. 20; vii. 7). Being destined to act a distinguished part in life, he was early preserved in a very remarkable manner. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had given orders to kill every male child of the Hebrews as soon as it was born. The mother of Moses, seeing that he was a goodly child, hid him three months, but not being able to hide him longer, she put him in an ark of bulrushes and laid it in the flags by the brink of the river Nile. There the ark was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter; and when she opened it, behold the babe wept; and she had compassion on him, and gave directions for his preservation; and the child grew, and he became her son (ii. 1-10). He was thus not only preserved, but he received an education, as was afterwards the case with the apostle Paul, which developed his mental powers, and eminently contributed to qualify him for the great