Mizar

Mizar is a hill named once, at the eastern frontier of the Jordan and the Hermons, as the place from which the psalmist of Psalm 42 remembers God when his soul is cast down.

A Hill Beyond the Jordan

The single notice sits inside the psalmist's lament:

"My soul is cast down inside me: Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, And the Hermons, from the hill Mizar" (Ps 42:6).

The geographic frame is layered: "the land of the Jordan," "the Hermons," and "the hill Mizar" together place the speaker far to the north and east of the temple, in the region of the river's headwaters. From that distance, the act of remembrance pushes against the cast-down soul of the preceding line:

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And [why] are you disquieted inside me? Hope in God; for I will yet praise him, My salvation and my God" (Ps 42:5-6).

And the next verse extends the picture by hearing the same hill country in the noise of falling water:

"Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls: All your waves and your billows have gone over me" (Ps 42:7).

Mizar's role in scripture is this single anchor — the named hill in the northern hill country from which the psalmist's memory turns back toward God.