ISBE
✕

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia · 1915

Merran

mer'-an (Merran; the King James Version Meran):

Many identifications have been suggested on the assumption that the text as it stands is correct. Some of these are the Sidonian Meareh (Grotius), Marane, a city of which Pliny speaks as being near the Red Sea (Keil), and the desert of Mahrah in Arabia (Fritzsche). It is very probable, however, that the name represents an error in transcription from the original Semitic text, confusing the Hebrew letter daleth ("d") with the Hebrew letter resh ("r"), so that we should read Meddan, or Medan, i.e. Midian. The phrase will then run, "the merchants of Midian and Teman" (Baruch 3:23). The merchants of Midian are referred to in Genesis 37:28.

W. Ewing

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, general editor (Chicago: Howard-Severance, 1915). Public domain. Text as published by biblestudytools.com. From the Encyclosphere, the open network of encyclopedias run by the Knowledge Standards Foundation. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: links to 1, 2, and 3 John that our source pointed at the Gospel of John corrected; our source’s section marks set as headings.