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These phrases usually emphasize that the persons so represented are whole brothers or
sisters, whereas the Hebrew words
, (“brother”) and
, (“sister”) meaning both
whole and half siblings, leave the issue unclear. On the other hand, in Gen. 27:29 this
phrase appears to mean peoples more distantly related: “Let people serve thee, and
nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down
to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.”
,
can represent blood relatives further removed than one’s mother. In 1 Kings
15:10 the word means “grandmother”: “And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem.
And his [grand]mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.” This word can
also mean “stepmother.” When Joseph told his dream to his family, “his father rebuked
him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy
[step]mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?”
(Gen. 37:10; cf. 35:16ff., where we read that Rachel died). The word can signify a
mother-in-law, or the mother of one’s wife: “And if a man take a wife and her mother, it
is wickedness …” (Lev. 20:14). The woman through whom a nation originated is called
its “mother”; she is the first or tribal “mother,” an ancestress: “Thus saith the Lord God
unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an
Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite” (Ezek. 16:3). Even further removed physically is Eve,
“the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20).
,
can represent all one’s female forebears: “Let the iniquity of his fathers be
remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out” (Ps. 109:14).
A group of people, a people, or a city may be personified and called a “mother.”
Hosea calls the priests (probably) the “mother” of Israel: “… And the prophet also shall
fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother” (Hos. 4:5). The people of Israel,
the northern kingdom, are the “mother” of Judah: “Where is the bill of your mother’s
divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold
you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is
your mother put away” (Isa. 50:1; cf. Hos. 2:4, 7).
An important city may be called a “mother” of its citizens: “… Thou seekest to
destroy a city and a mother in Israel …” (2 Sam. 20:19).
The title “mother in Israel” was a title of respect in Deborah’s day (Judg. 5:7).
“The mother of a way” is the starting point for roads: “For the king of Babylon stood
at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination …” (Ezek. 21:21).
MOUNTAIN RANGE
(
, 2022), “mountain range; mountainous region; mount.” This word also
appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Punic. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 558 times and
in all periods.
In its first biblical appearance
refers to the “mountain range” upon which Noah’s
ark came to rest (Gen. 8:4). In the singular form the word can mean a “mountain range”
or the “mountains” of a given area: “… And [he] set his face toward the mount [
NASB
,
“hill country”] Gilead” (Gen. 31:21). Jacob was fleeing from Laban toward the
“mountains” where he thought to find protection. A further extension of this meaning
applies this word to an area which is primarily mountainous; the word focuses on the
territory in general rather than on the mountains in particular: “And they gave them the