Psalms 120:5

5. Mesech… Kedar The Septuagint and Vulgate, following the radical sense of the word, render “Mesech” by prolonged: “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged.” But the word is to be taken as a proper name, the patronymic of a people descended from Meshech, son of Japheth, (Genesis 10:2,) and known in history as the Moschi, dwelling near the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, north of Armenia. Later, they penetrated southward into Cappadocia, ( Jos. Ant. b. i, c. 6, § 1,) and northward beyond the Caucasian mountains, and probably reappear in Europe under the name of Muscovites. They commonly stand associated with the Tibareni, (from Tubal, Genesis 10:2,) as in Ezekiel 27:13; Ezekiel 32:26; Ezekiel 38:2-3. ( Herod., b. vii, c. 78.) In our psalm the name “Mesech,” or Meshech, is a synonyme for northern barbarians, as “Kedar,” (son of Ishmael, Genesis 25:13,) was for Ishmaelites, or southern barbarians. On “Kedar,” as the common title for northern Arabians, see Song of Solomon 1:5; Isaiah 21:13; Isaiah 21:16-17; Ezekiel 27:21. Meshech and Magog had to the Hebrews the same proverbial sense of unsubdued barbarians that Scythian had to the Greeks; and it was but a natural association with “Kedar” in the mind of David, dwelling, as he now was, among these wild desert robbers. See, on his place of abode, 1 Samuel 25:1