Objects — M

mandrakes

Mandrakes found by Reuben at wheat harvest become the price Leah trades to Rachel for a night with Jacob.

manna

Manna is the bread Yahweh rains from heaven in the desert of Sin. It appears as fine, granular frost when the dew lifts. Israel collects a homer per head each day; leftovers overnight breed maggots, except the double portion kept for the Sabbath. They name it manna: white, like coriander seed, tasting of honey wafers. Aaron stores a homer of it before the Testimony. Israel eats manna for forty years until the frontiers of Canaan.

mark-of-cain

Yahweh's mark on Cain serves as a protective sign against vengeance.

mercy-seat

A cover of pure gold for the ark, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide, with two winged creatures modelled at its ends. It is put on the ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies. The incense altar stands in front of the curtain before the mercy-seat, where Yahweh meets Moses. Bezalel and Oholiab are commissioned to make the mercy-seat.

metal-gods

Israel must not cast metal gods; Yahweh's name is the Jealous One, a jealous God.

milk

Milk appears in patriarchal hospitality; Israel must not boil a kid in its mother's milk, a command restated in the Sinai covenant. After the calf Yahweh still sends Israel toward a country flowing with milk and honey.

mill

The mill marks the lowest station in Egypt: the first-born of the slave-girl at the mill will die in the last plague along with Pharaoh's heir.

money

Money entrusted to another's keeping, if stolen, is repaid double by the thief. Loans to the poor among Yahweh's people must not demand interest.

mosquitoes

Mosquitoes arise when Aaron strikes the dust of Egypt; Pharaoh’s magicians cannot replicate the plague in Exodus 8.

myrrh

Fresh myrrh, five hundred shekels by the sanctuary shekel, is one of the finest spices blended with cinnamon, scented reed, cassia and a hin of olive oil into the holy anointing oil.