Moreh

Mo’reh. (teacher).

1. The plain or plains, (or, as it should rather be rendered, the oak or oaks), of Moreh. The oak of Moreh was the first recorded halting-place of Abram, after his entrance into the land of Canaan. Gen 12:6. It was at the "place of Shechem," Gen 12:6, close to the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim. Deu 11:30.

2. The hill of Moreh, at the foot of which the Midianites and Amalekites were encamped, before Gideon’s attack upon them. Jdg 7:1. It lay in the valley of Jezreel, rather on the north side of the valley, and north also of the eminence on which Gideon’s little band of heroes was clustered.

These conditions are most accurately fulfilled, if we assume Jebel ed-Duhy, the "Little Hermon" of the modern travellers, 1815 feet above the Mediterranean, to be Moreh, the Ain-Jalood to be the spring of Harod, and Gideon’s position to have been on the northeast slope of Jebel Fukua, (Mount Gilboa), between the village of Nuris, and the last-mentioned spring.

1. "The plains," rather "the oaks" or "terebinths" of Moreh. Abram’s first halting place in Canaan, near Shechem and Ebal and Gerizim mountains (Gen 12:6); here he erected his first altar. "Morthia," on ancient coins, a title of Shechem, preserves the name Moreh. Under the same "oak" Jacob hid his household’s idols (Gen 35:4). Here Joshua set up a great stone by the sanctuary of Jehovah (Jos 24:26, compare Deu 11:30).

2. THE HILL OF MOREH. At its foot Midian and Amalek encamped before Gideon’s attack (Jdg 6:33; Jdg 7:1). On the northern side of the valley of Jezreel, and of the height where Gideon’s 300 were; jebel ed Duhy, "little Hermon," answers to Moreh. Two or three miles intervene (enough for Midian’s and Amalek’s hosts) between Moreh and ain Jalood, the spring of "Harod" at the foot of Gideon’s hill, jebel Fukua (Gilboa).

Moreh (mô’reh). 1. The halting place of Abram after his entrance into the land of Canaan. Gen 12:6. It was near Shechem, Gen 12:1-20; Gen 6:1-22, and the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. Deu 11:30. 2. The hill of Moreh, where the Midianites and Amalekites were encamped before Gideon’s attack upon them. Jdg 7:1. It lay in the valley of Jezreel, on the north side.

MOREH, the Hiphil participle from yârâh, means ‘teacher’ or ‘one who gives direction’ (2Ki 17:28, Isa 30:20 etc.), and so is applied to a prophet (Isa 9:15). Sitting in the shelter of a sacred tree, the priest or seer delivered his direction or’ oracles.’ 1. The terebinth (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , wrongly, ‘plain’) of Moreh (Gen 12:6) may have been so named from the theophany vouchsafed to Abraham there. The same spot may be indicated by the terebinths of Moreh (Deu 11:30), mentioned as indicating the position of Ebal and Gerizim. From their conjunction with Gilgal it has been suggested that the gilgal (‘stone circle’) and the terebinths were parts of the same sanctuary. There may be a reference to this place in Gen 35:4, in Jos 24:26, possibly also in Jdg 9:6. Gilgal (Deu 11:30) may be Khirbet Juleijel, fully 1¹/2 mile E. of Jacob’s Well. But this would not fix with certainty the position of the sanctuary of the terebinth.

2. The hill of Moreh (Jdg 7:1) seems to have lain to the N. of the position occupied by Gideon, in the direction of the camp of the Midianites. Taking the narrative as it stands, the Midianites ‘pitched in the valley of Jezreel’ (Jdg 6:33), while Gideon held the lower spurs of Gilboa towards Jezreel. ‘The spring of Harod’ is with some probability identified with ‘Ain Jalûd. The conspicuous hill on the other side of the vale, Jebel ed-Duhy, popularly now called Little Hermon, round the W. flanks of which, and northward in the plain, the Midianites would spread, may be almost certainly identified with the Hill of Moreh. The article with Moreh suggests the presence of a sanctuary on the hill. This may be represented by the modern shrine of Neby Duhy. Questions have been raised by the condition of the Heb. text, but no more probable identification has been suggested. Cf. Moreh.

W. Ewing.