Mizpah in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Hebrew "the Mizpah," generally a "watchtower". Mizpeh (masculine) expresses rather the town; Mizpah (feminine) the district (Joshua 11:8; Joshua 11:8). 1. In Gilead E. of Jordan. The name Laban gave to Galeed, the "heap of witness," the memorial of his covenant with Jacob, and the boundary landmark between them (Genesis 31:48-49; Genesis 31:52), "for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another." (See GALEED.) Herein he adopts Jacoh's language (Hebrew) and religion (Jehovah's worship). In Hosea 5:1, "ye house of the king, ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor," the sense is, Ye ought to have been "watchers" guarding Israel from evil, but ye have been as hunters entrapping them into it. Mizpah in the E. and Tabor in the W. include the high places of the whole kingdom in which the rulers set up idol altars. Here Israel assembled to choose a leader in its "misery" when Ammon, having oppressed eastern Israel, was threatening also to attack Judah and Ephraim W. of Jordan. Jephthah passed Mizpah on his way from Gilead to fight Ammon (Judges 10:16-17; Judges 11:29). Here on the hallowed ground he "uttered all his words before Jehovah in the Mizpah." Thenceforth his home was there; and at Mizpah the sad meeting with his daughter took place (Judges 11:34). Seemingly identical with Ramoth Gilead, or Ramath ("high place") Mizpeh (Joshua 13:26); now es Salt, or else Mizpah is the Mount Jebel Osha, to the N.W. Here too Israel met, as being the ancient sanctuary, to determine what was to be done after the outrage perpetrated at Gibeah (Judges 20:1; Judges 20:3; Judges 21:1; Judges 21:5; Judges 21:8). 2. Mizpeh Moab, where the Moabite king lived when David entrusted his parents to him (1 Samuel 22:3). Possibly Kir Moab, now Kerak, S.E. of the Dead Sea. More probably a mountain fastness on the high land bounding the Arboth Moab on the E. of the Dead Sea; on the mountains Abarim or Pisgah (Deuteronomy 34:1), which David could easily reach from Bethlehem by crossing the Jordan near its...