Mizpah

views updated May 23 2018

Mizpah designating a ring, locket, or other piece of jewellery, given as an expression or token of association or remembrance, originally and especially one with ‘Mizpah’ inscribed on it. The allusion is biblical; in Genesis 31:49 Jacob and Laban give this name to a place as a sign that God should keep watch between them (‘The Lord watch between me and thee’).

Mizpah comes from Hebrew Miṣpah watchtower, used as the name of several places in ancient Palestine.