176 THE SHEPHERD KINGS OF EGYPT. 



{Numbers X. 14.) JSTahslion Zur. (Numbers xxv. 15.) 



As I shall yet prove that Mareshah was the contemporary of 

 Joseph, though somewhat older than he, this identification of Laadah 

 and Eldaah is rendered more probable. However, I do not by any 

 means possitively assert that they are the same. There are philological 

 difficulties in the way which I would not, without the strongest 

 reasons, overstep. The name of Mareshah appears frequently in the 

 Bible, denoting a town in, Judah (Joshua xv. 44 ; 2 Chron. xi. 8, 

 &c.,) connecting with the Ziph region, and a place where Micah the 

 prophet was born, termed Moresheth-Gath (Micah i. 14). Merodach, 

 in its Arabic form of Mirrikh, may, as I have already stated, easily 

 be a cori-uption of this word. Mars, the Latin form of the name of 

 the same god, is nearer still, and Ares of the Greek is simply Mare- 

 shah without the prefix M. The son of Mareshah possessed one of 

 the most noted of all regions in Palestine, that of Hebron. It is 

 as difficult to say at what particiilar time the city of Mami'e (Genesis 

 xxiii. 19) became Hebron, as it is to tell when it acquired the name 

 of Kirjath Arba, or what relations existed between the families 

 represented by these names. To decide these questions we would 

 require a full history of the time during which the Israelites sojourned 

 in Canaan and dwelt in Egypt, which I triist will soon be ours. The 

 only other Hebron of whom I find mention is a son of Kohath, the- 

 Levite (Exodus vi. 18, &c). Of the sons of Hebron, son of Mareshah, 

 Korah bears the same name as a son of Esau by Aholibamah. Also. 

 (Exodus vi. 21,) there is a Korah who is a nephev/ of Hebron the 

 Levite. I have already queried Kerrek of Moab for Kai-kor of the ■ 

 Philistines and Acharchel. The meaning of the word as it appears 

 in other languages (e.g. Gargarus, the snowy) would rather justify its 



