Misrephothmaim
Mis'rephoth-ma'im (Heb.. Misrephoth'-Mayirm, מַשׂרפוֹת מִיַם, burnings of water; according to Kimchi, with allusion to warm baths; but, as Gesenius thinks, from lime- kilns or smelting-furnaces situated near the water; Sept. Μασρεφὼθ Μαϊvν, Vulg. aquae Maserephoth), a place between Zidon and the valley of Mizpeh, whither Joshua pursued the allied Canaanites after the defeat of Jabin (Jos 11:8); from which passage, as well as from the only other where the place is mentioned (Jos 13:6), it appears to have been a valley (containing springs or a running stream; see Unger, De thermis Sidonis, Lips. 1803), situated in the mountainous region, near the northern border of Canaan, opposite Mount Lebanon; probably therefore in the middle portion of the valley of the Leontes-a position that may have given occasion for the name (i.q. glass-houses by the water side, see Keil, Comment. ad loc.) by furnishing facilities for the manufacture of glass (a substance said to have been first invented in 'this region) from the sand washed down by the stream. Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, 1:469) still adheres to a location given by him and Schulz (Bibliotheca Sacra, 1855, page 826) at a collection of springs called Ain-Mesherfi, with ruins adjacent on the shore near Ras en-Nakura, at the foot of Jebel Mushakka, on the northern border of the plain of Akka (Van de Velde. Memoir, page 335); but the locality is entirely too far south of Sidon.
