COUNTRY OF. Meshech was the sixth son of Japheth, and is generally mentioned in conjunction with his brother Tubal; and both were first seated in the north-eastern angle of Asia Minor, from the shores of the Euxine, along to the south of Caucasus; where were the Montes Moschisi, and where, in after times, were the Iberi, Tibareni, and Moschi; near to whom also, or mingled with them, were the Chalybes, who, it is probable, derived their Grecian appellation from the general occupation of the families of Tubal and Meshech, as workers in brass and iron, as the inhabitants of the same countries have been in all ages, for the supply of Tyre, Persia, Greece, and Armenia. There appears also to have been in the same neighbourhood, namely, in Armenia, a river and country termed Rosh: for so, Bochart says, the river Araxes is called by the Arabs; and that there was a people in the adjoining country called Rhossi. That passage in Ezekiel , 38, also, which in our Bibles is rendered “the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,” is, in the Septuagint, “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” These Rossi and Moschi, who were neighbours in Asia, dispersed their colonies jointly over the vast empire of Russia; and preserve their names still in those of Russians and Muscovites.
Me’shech. (drawing out). A son of Japhet, Gen 10:2; 1Ch 1:5, and the progenitor of a race frequently noticed in Scripture, in connection with Tubal, Magog and other northern nations. They appear as allies of God, Eze 38:2-3; Eze 39:1, and as supplying the Tyrians with copper and slaves. Eze 27:13.
In Psa 120:5, they are noticed as one of the remotest, and at the same time, rudest nations of the world. Both the name and the associations are in favor of the identification of Meshech with the Moschi, a people on the borders of Colchis and Armenia.
(See MESECH.)
MESHECH.—1. The name of a people of Asia Minor mentioned after Tubal as among the sons of Japbeth (Gen 10:2). These two peoples, possibly kindred, appear almost always in conjunction in OT; so even in Isa 66:18, where read ‘Meshech’ instead of ‘that draw the bow’ (the word for ‘bow’ being a supplementary gloss). In Psa 12:06 Meshech and Kedar appear as types of barbarous and warlike people, just as Meshech and Tubal are represented in Eze 32:28; Eze 38:2; Eze 39:1. In the Assyrian annals the Tabalî and Mushkî, who are undoubtedly the same as Tuhal and Meshech, are found again together (as fierce opponents of Assyria in the 12th cent. b.c.), the former lying to the north-east of Cilicia and the latter eastward between them and the Euphrates. The Tibareni and Moschi of the classical writers must stand for the same two peoples. Eze 27:13 names them as trading in slaves and articles of bronze.
2. In 1Ch 1:17 ‘Meshech’ is written by mistake for ‘Mash’ (cf. Gen 10:23)
J. F. M‘Curdy.