Mazor
Mazor
(Heb. Matsor’, ), a name occurring only in the original, and which the traslators of the A. V. (besieged places, 2Ki 19:24; Isa 37:25; fortified cities, Mic 7:12; defense, Isa 19:6) have confounded with a word of the same form signifying a fortress (as in Psa 31:22; Hab 2:1, etc.). Gesenius, however (Thesaur. Heb. p. 815), regards it as a title of Egypt, and apparently Lower Egypt, as, in three out of the four passages where it occurs, it is in the phrase , the streams or canals of Egypt, i.e. the branches of the Nile (Isa 19:6; Isa 37:25; 2Ki 19:24); and that it comes from the Egpytian word meduro, a kingdom; perhaps the sing. of the dual form Mizriailum, q. d. double Egypt (comp. Josephus, Ant. 1:6, 2). Others (see Bochart, Phaleag, 4:24), as probably the Hebrews themselves, considered Egypt to be so called as being strongly fortified (see Died. Sic. 1:31). SEE EGYPT; SEE FORTRESS.