Mazor

Ma'zor (Heb. Matsor', מָצוֹר), 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 Ps 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 יאֹרֵי מָצוֹר, 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, מִצרִיַם 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.