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•MENE (Daniel 5:25, 26), numbered, one of the words of the mysterious inscription written “upon the plaister of the wall” in Belshazzar’s palace at Babylon. The writing was explained by Daniel. (See BELSHAZZAR.)
•MENI Isaiah 65:11, marg. (A.V., “that number;” R.V., “destiny”), probably an idol which the captive Israelites worshipped after the example of the Babylonians. It may have been a symbol of destiny. LXX., tuche.
•MEONENIM (Judges 9:37; A.V., “the plain of Meonenim;” R.V., “the oak of Meonenim”) means properly “soothsayers” or “sorcerers,” “wizards” (Deuteronomy 18:10, 14; 2 Kings 21:6; Micah 5:12). This may be the oak at Shechem under which Abram pitched his tent (see SHECHEM), the “enchanter’s oak,” so called, perhaps, from Jacob’s hiding the “strange gods” under it (Genesis 35:4).
•MEPHAATH splendour, a Levitical city (Joshua 21:37) of the tribe of Reuben (13:18).
•MEPHIBOSHETH exterminator of shame; i.e., of idols. (1.) The name of Saul’s son by the concubine Rizpah (q.v.), the daughter of Aiah. He and his brother Armoni were with five others “hanged on a hill before the Lord” by the Gibeonites, and their bodies exposed in the sun for five months (2 Samuel 21:8-10). (2.) The son of Jonathan, and grandson of Saul (2 Samuel 4:4). He was but five years old when his father and grandfather fell on Mount Gilboa. The child’s nurse hearing of this calamity, fled with him from Gibeah, the royal residence, and stumbling in her haste, the child was thrown to the ground and maimed in both his feet, and ever after was unable to walk (19:26). He was carried to the land of Gilead, where he found a refuge in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar, by whom he was brought up.