MAACAH (PERSON). The name of several persons—men as well as women—in the Old Testament. Among the best known are Maacah, the Geshurite wife of David and the mother of Absalom, Absalom’s daughter Maacah, the wife of Rehoboam and the mother of King Abijah, and Maacah, the wife of Abijah and the mother of Asa.
MAACAH (PLACE). See ARAM-MAACAH.
MACHIR. The son of Manasseh (Gen 50:23) and the eponymous ancestor of a tribal segment among the Israelite tribes. Machir is considered a segment of the tribe of Manasseh. However, in the Song of Deborah, Machir appears as an independent tribe from the central highland of Palestine. According to other traditions Machir’s home was in Transjordan.
MAHANAIM. A city in Transjordan where Jacob met the angel of God (Gen 32:2-3—ET 32:1-2). Here he divided his family into two sections before his meeting with Esau (Gen 32:8-11—ET 32:7-10). Both stories function as popular explanations of the name of Mahanaim being interpreted as “two camps.” Ishboshet was elected king at Mahanaim (2 Sam 2:8-9), and David retreated to Mahanaim when he was forced out of Jerusalem by Absalom. Here he established his temporary base (2 Sam 17:24-18:5). In the time of King Solomon, Mahanaim was the center of one of his provinces (1 Kgs 4:14). Mahanaim is usually identified with Telul ed Dhabab elgarbi on the Jabbok River. It has never been excavated.
MAKKEDAH. A Canaanite city conquered by Joshua (Josh 10:28). Later it became part of the tribal territory of Judah (Josh 15:41). Although the narrative in Josh 10 indicates a location in the Shephelah west of Jerusalem, its present location is unknown.
MAMRE. The place where Abraham lived and entertained God (Gen 18). It is also the name of one of Abraham’s Amorite allies (Gen 14:13.24). It is normally identified with Ramat el-halil 4 kilometers north of Hebron.
MANASSEH (KING). King of Judah 697-642 B.C.E. In spite of his 55 years on the throne, Manasseh is considered the worst ever king of Judah and he is seen as the main reason for the impending destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, although, historically, Manasseh had nothing to do with these events (2 Kgs 21:1-18). The authors of the Books of Chronicles have problems understanding why Manasseh was allowed such a long reign—in their eyes a sign of the Lord’s blessing. Accordingly they invented a totally unlikely story about an Assyrian attack on Judah that led to the deportation of Manasseh in chains to Babylon. From Babylon Manasseh returned a new and pious man and was allowed to stay on his throne (2 Chron 33:10-13). Assyrian documents from the time of Esarhaddon say that he was a loyal vassal of Assyria, and he was probably able to regain from the Assyrians the parts of Hezekiah’s kingdom which they had removed from Judah in 701 B.C.E. See also SENNACHERIB’S SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.
MANASSEH (TRIBE). Joseph’s first son with Asenat, the daughter of the priest of On (Gen 46:20), the brother of Ephraim and the eponymous ancestor of the tribe of Manasseh. He lost his father’s blessing to his brother, something that has been understood as a reflection on the secondary position of the tribe of Manasseh in comparison to the tribe of Ephraim. On the other hand, all the capitals of the Kingdom of Israel were situated within Manassite territory: Shechem, Tirzah, and Samaria. Manasseh’s tribal territory, between modern Nablus and the Jezreel Valley, was a fruitful area dominated by rolling hills and broad valleys. According to the Old Testament, Manasseh was divided into more segments, and half of the tribe was supposed to have lived in Transjordan under the name of Machir. This may be either a secondary historical development or just literary reflection as other sources indicate that Machir was an independent tribe.
MARESHA. A city in the Judean foothills normally located at Tell Sandahanna. Maresha was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron 11:8). Chronicles also refer to a battle at Maresha between Zera the Nubian and King Asa of Judah (2 Chron 14:8-9). It was partly excavated in 1900.
MAXIMALISM. A term used to refer to the representatives of a school of biblical historians interested in extracting as much historical information from the narratives of the Old Testament as possible. Representing mainstream scholarship at the beginning of the 21st century, they agree with the so-called minimalists on most when it comes to Israel’s history before the introduction of the monarchy but take a firm stand when it comes to the historicity of David and Solomon. Generally, they date the major part of biblical historical literature as included in the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History to the late pre-exilic period.
MEDIA. A kingdom on the Iranian plateau. Media appears in Assyrian records of the ninth century B.C.E. It was incorporated into the Assyrian Empire in the time of Tiglath-pileser III, but regained its independence c. 650 B.C.E. and became one of the architects of the downfall of Assyria. Its capital was Ekhbatana. About 550 B.C.E. it was incorporated into Cyrus’s empire and became part of Persia. The Old Testament has difficulties distinguishing between the Medes and the Persians, and sometimes reckons a Persian king to be a Median. Thus Darius in the Book of Daniel is called a Mede, although he was a Persian king.
MEGIDDO. An important city at the western end of the Valley of Jezreel, in a strategic position where one of the most important ancient routes through Palestine crosses the Carmel range. The king of Megiddo was killed in a battle with Joshua (Josh 12:21) but, although it was located within the tribal territory of Manasseh (Josh 17:11), the Israelites did not conquer the city (Judg 1:27). The battle between Sisera and Deborah and Barak took place close to Megiddo (Judg 5:19). Solomon included the city in his provincial arrangements (1 Kgs 4:12) and fortified the city (1 Kgs 9:15). Belonging to its later history, Ahaziah died from his wounds at Megiddo, and Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Necho defending the pass through the Carmel at Megiddo (2 Kgs 23:29).
Megiddo is located on Tel Megiddo (previously Tell el Mute-sellim) c. 45 kilometers southeast of modern Haifa. Settlement at Megiddo goes back to the Neolithic period. In the Chalcolithic period an unfortified settlement was established that developed into a heavily fortified city in the Early Bronze Age. After a period of decline, Megiddo achieved new importance in the Middle Bronze Age but was conquered in 1479 B.C.E. by Thutmose III, and remained in Egyptian possession for the duration of the Late Bronze Age. Also in the Iron Age, a city with massive fortifications existed at this place, a victim to the expedition of Pharaoh Shishak. In the time of the Neo-Assyrian (see Assyria and Babylonia) Empire, Megiddo was made the center of the Assyrian province of Magiddu. Megiddo was abandoned in the fourth century B.C.E. Megiddo has for a hundred years been excavated by three major archaeological expeditions, the last one still ongoing.
MEHOLA. The home town of Saul’s son-in-law and second husband of Michal (1 Sam 18:19). See also ABEL.
MELCHIZEDEK. When Abraham returned from his victory over the four great kings (Gen 14), he was met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem and the priest of the most high, and paid tribute to this king (Gen 14:18-20). The story is totally legendary but has been interpreted as a reference to a pre-Israelite Jebussite Jerusalem.
MENAHEM. King of Israel c. 744-736 B.C.E. Menahem resided at Tirzah but turned against Shallum in Samaria who only a month before had murdered his master, King Zechariah, the last king of the House of Jehu. In 738 B.C.E., as Tiglath-pileser III turned to the west, Menahem paid a heavy tribute to the king of Assyria (2 Kgs 15:13-22). The tribute is recorded both in the Old Testament and in Assyrian sources.
MEPHIBOSHET. 1. The invalid son of Jonathan who was spared by David (2 Sam 4:4; 9,1-8). Like the name of Saul’s son Ishboshet, Mephiboshet is a pejorative for his real name, Meribbaal, substituting Baal (name of a god) with boshet, “evil.” He was accused of having supported Absalom and lost half of his possessions (2 Sam 19:24-30).
2. A son of Saul and Rizpah who was on David’s order executed at Gibeon (2 Sam 21:8).
MERAB. Saul’s oldest daughter chosen to become the wife of David. Instead she was given in marriage to Adriel from Mehola (1 Sam 18:17-19) while David married Michal, her younger sister. Her children were executed by the Gibeonites on David’s order (2 Sam 21:8-9).
MERENPTAH. Egyptian Pharaoh 1213-1203 B.C.E., the son of Ramesses II, whose victory stele from his fifth year includes the first known mention of Israel in any ancient Near Eastern inscription. See also ISRAEL STELE.
MERODAK-BALADAN. The Hebrew rendering of the Akkadian name Marduk-apal-iddina, the Babylonian adversary of several Assyrian (see Assyria and Babylonia) kings including Sargon and Sennacherib. The Old Testament refers to negotiations between Hezekiah of Judah and Merodak-Baladan, probably in connection with Hezekiah’s rebellion against the Assyrians 705-701 B.C.E. (2 Kgs 20:12-19). He was finally driven out of Babylon by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E.
MEROM, WATERS OF. The scene of the battle between a Canaanite coalition headed by King Jabin of Hazor and the Israelites under Joshua (Josh 11). It was located in Upper Galilee north or northwest of Lake Kinnereth and often identified with Meron, although other candidates have been proposed.
MESHA AND THE MESHA INSCRIPTION. King of Moab in the second half of the ninth century B.C.E. and the author of the Mesha inscription.
A. Mesha in the Old Testament. In contrast to Mesha’s own version of his life, the Old Testament tells the story of a combined Israelite and Judean campaign in the days of Jehoshaphat of Judah and Jehoram of Israel against Mesha. The allied army succeeded in reaching Mesha’s capital at Kir-Hareshet. Here Mesha sacrificed his son to his god, Kemosh, whereupon the Israelite-Judean army returned in dismay (2 Kgs 3).
B. Mesha and the Mesha inscription. The Mesha inscription is the most important royal inscription ever found in Transjordan. The stele carrying the inscription that was found in 1868 C.E. was composed by King Mesha of Moab honoring his god, Kemosh, because Kemosh no longer allowed the enemy to plague Moab. According to Mesha’s inscription, the foe of Moab was King Omri of Israel, and his son, who is not mentioned by name. Mesha had liberated Moab from the yoke of the Israelites and vanquished its enemies. Israel was destroyed. The tribe of Gad, which since eternity had occupied Ataroth (see also Num 32:3.34), was seemingly exterminated by Mesha when he conquered the city and put a ban on its inhabitants. Other localities near Dibon and Ataroth were also conquered and turned into Moabite strongholds.
The historical importance of this inscription cannot be exaggerated, although it is not always easy to interpret the evidence. Thus the connection between the Mesha inscription and the story in 2 Kings 3 about King Jehoshaphat’s and King Jehoram’s campaign in Moab is not very clear. According to Mesha, the Israelites ruled Moab for 40 years, including Omri’s reign and half the time of his son. However, according to 2 Kings 3, Mesha only rebelled after Ahab’s death. It is possible to solve the puzzle if the “40 years” are understood to be a round number (in the meaning of “many years”) and the reference to the son of Omri as not involving mighty King Ahab. It seems likely that the title “son of Omri” became an honorary one for Omri’s successors as long as the official dynastic name of Israel was “the house of Omri.” 2 Kings 3 may after all record the same events as Mesha in his inscription, although from an Israelite perspective. 2 Kings 3 and Mesha’s inscription agree on one thing: that Israel did not conquer Moab in Jehoram’s days.
The cultural information of the inscription is also important. The lord of history is Kemosh, the god of Moab—as Yahweh is the lord of history in the Old Testament. The note about the ban (in Hebrew and Moabite called herem) placed on the inhabitants of Ataroth can directly be likened to similar information in the Old Testament, for example, in the conquest narratives in the Book of Joshua. The Mesha inscription is currently part of the archaeological exhibition of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
MESOPOTAMIA. (Meaning “between the rivers”). See ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.
MICAH. From Moreshet in the Judean hill lands. His book belongs among the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. He is supposed to have prophesied in the time of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Mic 1:1). His prophecies include severe criticism of social injustice. He is therefore considered an important firsthand witness to the social disorder of his time.
MICAIAH SON OF IMLAH. When the king of Israel asked his assembly of prophets for advice before going to war against Aram, he received the unanimous answer that he should go—not a single one of the 400 prophets assembled at the court opposed his plans. Therefore Micaiah was brought from the royal prison before the king and asked to give a true answer. Reluctantly Micaiah is forced to prophesy the truth to the king: if he goes to war, he will be killed and his army destroyed. Immediately, Micaiah was sent back to his cell (1 Kgs 22).
MICHAL. The youngest daughter of King Saul (1 Sam 14:49). She married David (1 Sam 18:17-21) and helped him to escape from Saul by cheating her father (1 Sam 19:1-17) but was given in marriage by her father to Paltiel from Gallim (1 Sam 25:44). During his negotiations with Abner, David demanded that Michal must be given back to him. As a consequence she was against her will handed over to David (2 Sam 3:12-16). When David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, she ridiculed his behavior but was left barren as a punishment (2 Sam 6:20-23).
In the tradition about the execution of the seven sons of Saul (2 Sam 22), Michal is in the Hebrew Bible mentioned as the wife of Adriel from Mehola, whose five children the Gibeonites hang. Modern translations normally emend Michal to Merab, Saul’s oldest daughter.
MICHMASH. An important place at a mountain pass c. 15 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Here Saul’s son Jonathan surprised the Philistines and killed their outpost. Michmash can be identified with the Arab village of Mukilometersash that has preserved the name.
MIDIAN, MIDIANITES. According to the Old Testament, the Midianites were a camel-breeding nomadic people. Relations between the Midianites and Israel were in prehistoric times sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile. The eponymous ancestor of the Midianites is a son of Keturah (Gen 25:2). Jacob’s beloved son Joseph was sold by his unfaithful brothers to Midianite merchants (Gen 37:28; they are in the same connection also called “Ishmaelites” [see Ishmael]). At a later date, during his escape from Egypt, Moses sought and found security in the home of the “priest of Midian” and here he married his daughter Zipporah (Exod 2:11-22). The relations between the Israelites and the Midianites turned to the worst at Beth-Peor, where the Israelites fornicated with Midianite women (Num 25). The final important story about the Midianites belongs to the Period of the Judges, when the judge Gideon had to fight against intruding Midianite camel nomads.
The information about Midian in the Old Testament is historically not very precise and also tendentious and may reflect memories of Midian long after the disappearance of the Midianites from history. The Midianites joined the coalition of Ishmaelite tribes that roamed the desert of Syria and northern Arabia. The historical Midian was partly a settled society including some important fortified cities located in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Their society may have existed from the 13th century to the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E. Their language was an early variant of the later Arabic. Their civilization included a number of elements borrowed from neighboring cultures (Egyptian as well as Anatolian traits), certainly the result of their importance in international trade.
MIGRATION. See DESERT, MIGRATIONS IN THE DESERT.
MIGRATION MODEL. See SETTLEMENT OF ISRAEL.
MILLO. Or the House of Millo. A locality in Jerusalem. So far, several interpretations of Millo—probably meaning “the filling”—have been proposed but none universally accepted. Two locations of the Millo may be given preference: 1. Millo constituted the saddle on the ridge between the Temple Mount and the City of David located south of the temple complex, now filled up, or 2. Millo refers to the terrace system on the eastern slope of the City of David, occupied by several buildings located on an artificially constructed system of terraces.
MINIMALISM. A term used to refer to a recent trend among contemporary students of the history of ancient Israel. Skepticism constitutes the basic attitude of the so-called minimalists toward the historical reliability of the narratives of the Old Testament. The minimalists maintain that the books of the Old Testament include literature that is generally of a very late date, that is, the Persian period or later, and that they represent a view of Israel’s past as seen through the eyes of Judaism that constructed its past without much regard for historical exactitude. The biblical narratives are fundamentally regarded as literature, not as historical reports. The main representatives of the circle of minimalists are Philip R. Davies, Niels Peter Lemche, and Thomas L. Thompson.
MIRIAM. The sister of Moses and Aaron, and named a prophet. During the migration (see Desert, Migrations in the Desert) of the Israelites in the desert, Miriam in alliance with Aaron opposed Moses at Hazeroth because of his marriage with an Ethiopian woman but received her deserved punishment for her offense from God (Num 12). She was buried in the desert of Sin (Num 20:1). The victory hymn in Exod 15:21 is attributed to Miriam by the Old Testament historiographers.
MIZPAH, MIZPEH. The name (meaning “watchtower”) of several cities in ancient Israel. The most important was Mizpah of Benjamin (Josh 18:26). It is mentioned a number of times in narratives relating to the history of Israel before the introduction of the monarchy, sometimes as the place where the Israelite army assembled before a campaign. Thus, the army met at Mizpah during the war against Benjamin (Judges 19-21), and Samuel assembled his army here before moving against the Philistines (1 Sam 7). Saul was elected king at Mizpah (1 Sam 10:17-25). Mizpah was fortified by Asa (1 Kgs 15:22). After the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E., Mizpah became the center of the Babylonian (see Assyria and Babylonia) administration and the residence of Gedaliah. It is usually located at Tell en-Nasbeh, c. 12 kilometers north of Jerusalem. The place was excavated in the 1920s where a city dating back to the early Iron Age was discovered.
MOAB, MOABITES. The name of a state and its inhabitants located in Transjordan, to the east of the Dead Sea between the Zered River in the south and Heshbon in the north, altogether c. 2500 square kilometers. In the Old Testament, Moab sometimes acts as the enemy of the Israelites, sometimes as their friend. During their migrations (see Desert, Migrations in the Desert), the Israelites had to fight their way through Moabite territory (Num 22-24), but they also had intercourse with Moabite women (Num 25). The royal house of Judah was partly of Moabite origin as David was a descendant of the Moabite woman Ruth. When he fled from Saul, David brought his family to a safe harbor in Moab (1 Sam 22:3-5), but after having become king of Israel, he conquered Moab and killed a major part of its male population (2 Sam 8:2). Finally King Jehoram of Israel and King Jehoahaz of Judah led a campaign against King Mesha of Moab.
Moab may have been mentioned in ancient Near Eastern documents from the Middle Bronze Age. Egyptian sources of the Late Bronze Age refer to Moab. The Moabite state was established in the ninth century B.C.E., when Mesha liberated Moab from Israel. It was subdued by the Assyrians in 734-732 B.C.E. After that no records exist as to its further history.
MONARCHY, PERIOD OF. In the Old Testament, the period from the election of Saul as king of Israel to the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the House of David. In classical biblical scholarship the Period of the Monarchy covers a little more than 400 years, from c. 1000 to 587 B.C.E. The Monarchy can be subdivided into a prelude under Saul, who according to the Old Testament reigned for only two years, although this information has been doubted, as it appears in a seemingly broken context (1 Sam 13:1). The glorious period of the United Monarchy follows after Saul. Now all of Israel was for almost 80 years ruled by David and Solomon. In this period, Israel was not only united but also expanded beyond its traditional borders to include also the nations to the east of the Jordan River, and large parts of Syria. Some traditions even say that its northeastern border was on the banks of the Euphrates. This period lasted according to critical scholarship from c. 1000 to 932 B.C.E. The next phase opened with the dissolution of Solomon’s kingdom into two Israelite states, the small Kingdom of Judah and the far bigger Kingdom of Israel. The empire was at the same time lost, as the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites regained their independence, and the Aramaeans of Syria threw away the yoke of the Israelite kings of Jerusalem.
The time of the two independent kingdoms was also a period of decline, although in the ninth century the Kingdom of Israel under the House of Omri regained some of the former greatness of the kingdom of David and Solomon. Internal strife between the two Israelite kingdoms only contributed to the decline. Most of the territories outside Palestine were lost to the Aramaeans, and the route to Eloth that had been the harbor from where Solomon had sent out his ships to foreign countries was blocked by the Edomites. The end came first to the Kingdom of Israel that succumbed to the power of Assyria in 722 B.C.E. after a large part of its population was deported to Mesopotamia. Later followed the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah that surrendered to the army of Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.E. while at the same time Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, its king sent into captivity in Mesopotamia, and its population carried away into exile.
Although this has for long been the official version of the history of the Period of the Monarchy that can be found in most textbooks on the history of ancient Israel, historians have by now started a revision of the history of this period that has already changed it considerably. While it is acknowledged that nothing is known about the time of Saul, as no source from his time has survived except the Old Testament, it has at the same time become clear that the biblical image of the great Israelite state of the 10th century B.C.E. has little to do with political and economic circumstances in Palestine at that time. Thus, it is even being discussed whether a settlement existed at Jerusalem in the 10th century B.C.E. Instead of speaking of an Israelite empire, one should rather talk of the existence in central Palestine of an Israelite chiefdom, or principality of a limited geographical extent. The history of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah is also being revised. While it seems likely that Israel under Omri and Ahab developed into a major player in southwestern Asia in the ninth century B.C.E., there are few traces of an organized state south of Omri’s kingdom.
It seems now likely that a state in the proper sense of the word only arose in Judah in the late ninth or early eighth century B.C.E. This state, whose first economic if not political center was the city of Lachish, was soon crippled by Sennacherib, who attacked and destroyed most of the country except Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E. (see Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem). In the following 70 years, Judah was a vassal of Assyria, although Jerusalem at the same time grew to new greatness both in size and in ideology for having survived Sennacherib’s siege of the city. When Assyria withdrew from the Levant toward the end of the seventh century B.C.E., the Egyptians and after them the Babylonians took over. The king of Jerusalem may for a short time have mixed in international political affairs. But ultimately it spelled the end of the by now quasi-independent Kingdom of Judah. Instead of being impregnable to foreign attacks, Jerusalem was conquered twice by the Babylonians, in 597 and 587 B.C.E.
MORDECAI. The stepfather of Esther, who was instrumental in saving the Jews from the scheming of evil Haman.
MORESHET. The hometown of the prophet Micah, also called Moreshet-Gath, often identified as Tell ej-Judeideh c. 10 kilometers northeast of Lachish.
MORIAH. In the story in Genesis 22 about the sacrifice of Isaac, Moriah is the place of sacrifice, although Isaac was spared at the last moment. In 2 Chron 3:1, Moriah is identified with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Samaritan tradition disagrees with this identification and claims that their holy mountain Garizim is the true place to look for Moriah.
MOSES. The central figure in the literature of the Old Testament from the Book of Exodus to Deuteronomy, and the hero of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. According to the biblical narrative, Moses, who was of Levite parentage, was saved from the fate of the Israelite male children by being exposed in a basket on the Nile, where he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Although brought up at the Pharaoh’s court, Moses remained faithful to his people and was forced to flee for his life for having killed an Egyptian official. During his stay in the desert, he married a Midianite woman, Zipporah, the daughter of “the priest of Midian,” and he was called by God in the burning bush to save his people Israel from the hands of the Egyptians (Exod 3). Assisted by his brother Aaron, Moses returned to Egypt and confronted the Pharaoh, demanding him to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. When the Pharaoh refused, God struck Egypt with ten plagues. Then the Pharaoh thought it wise to let the Israelites go, although he soon regretted his leniency. When Pharaoh pursued the Israelites, the Israelites through Moses’ intermediation walked through the Sea of Reeds and gained safety in the Sinai Peninsula while the Pharaoh perished in the waters of the sea (Exod 3-15).
At Sinai, Moses became the intermediary between the Lord and Israel, bringing the law of God to Israel while he at the same time supervised the establishment of the covenant between God and Israel (Exod 19-34). After he had finished his presentation of the law to Israel, for 40 years Moses led his people through the desert to the borders of Canaan, a country he himself was not allowed to enter. After a farewell speech that covers most of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses climbed Mount Nebo to look over the future country of the Israelites. After that he died and was buried in a grave unknown to man (Num 10-Deut 34).
In the Old Testament, Moses appears in several capacities. First and foremost, he was the undisputed hero of early Israel, who on occasion led the Israelites in battle against the Amorites and Midianites. He is also described as a great leader of men who at times had to stand up to protest and revolt even from his own family (Num 12). He was also acting as a prophet and the spokesman of the Lord, and in this capacity he served as a mediator who turned God’s anger away from his people. He was sometimes a magician who could strike water from a rock (Num 20:1-13), and he was a priest.
Aside from the five books of Moses, Moses only appears sporadically in the Old Testament. Hellenistic Jewish sources know of Moses as the real founder of the temple in Jerusalem, a tradition probably reflected in the note about his staff, Nehushtan, that was removed from the temple and destroyed in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kings 18:4).
Although the tradition about Moses in the Old Testament is both complex and comprehensive, it is almost impossible to say anything about the historical Moses. Scholars have, on one hand, emphasized the importance of his unusual name—most likely a shortened form of an Egyptian name like Ramose (Ramessses), or Thutmose—while, on the other, they point to the information about the unknown grave of Moses in Moab (see Moab, Moabites). Too many miracles are included in his story, including the miraculous rescue from the waters of the Nile—a motif also found in other ancient sagas about heroes and founders of nations, as in Mesopotamia the legendary Sargon, the founder of the Empire of Akkad, and in Italy Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Although it is impossible to say that he never lived, it is likewise impossible to present anything historically verifiable relevant to his life. Quasi-scholarly literature has sometimes ventured to establish connections between Moses and various characters of the Egyptian New Kingdom but, although people of Levantine origin sometimes obtained high positions in Egypt in the time of the Egyptian Empire in Asia, none of these identifications can be sustained by evidence.