Benjamin (Josh. 18:22); now the ruin, rather two ruins,

of the Phoenician tribes (Gen. 10:18) who inhabited the

town of Sumra, at the western base of the Lebanon range. In

the Amarna tablets (B.C. 1400) Zemar, or Zumur, was one of

the most important of the Phoenician cities, but it

“the lawyer,” whom Paul wished Titus to bring

concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. (1.) The son of Cushi,

and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order

of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah,

king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with

Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The book of his

Canaanite town; called also Hormah (q.v.), Judg. 1:17. It

has been identified with the pass of es-Sufah, but with

of Judah, near Mareshah; the scene of Asa’s conflict

with Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chr. 14:9-13). Identified with

“Ethiopian,” probably Osorkon II., the successor

of Shishak on the throne of Egypt. With an enormous army,

the largest we read of in Scripture, he invaded the kingdom

of Judah in the days of Asa (2 Chr. 14:9-15). He reached

Zephathah, and there encountered the army of Asa. This is

the only instance “in all the annals of Judah of a

victorious encounter in the field with a first-class

heathen power in full force.” The Egyptian host was

utterly routed, and the Hebrews gathered “exceeding

much spoil.” Three hundred years elapsed before

another Egyptian army, that of Necho (B.C. 609), came up

willow bush, a brook or valley communicating with the Dead

Sea near its southern extremity (Num. 21:12; Deut. 2:14).

It is called the “brook of the willows” (Isa.

15:7) and the “river of the wilderness” (Amos

the north of Mount Ephraim; the birthplace of Jeroboam (1

Kings 11:26). It is probably the same as Zaretan (Josh.

3:16), Zererath (Judg. 7:22), Zartanah (1 Kings 4:12), or

of Jordan; the same as Zarthan (2 Chr. 4:17; 1 Kings 7:46).

Here Solomon erected the foundries in which Hiram made the

identical with Zereda or Zeredathah. Some identify it with

of Haman, whom she instigated to prepare a gallows for

Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes (1 Kings

the son of Salathiel or Shealtiel (Hag. 1:1; Zorobabel,

Matt. 1:12); called also the son of Pedaiah (1 Chr.

3:17-19), i.e., according to a frequent usage of the word

“son;” the grandson or the nephew of Salathiel.

He is also known by the Persian name of Sheshbazzar (Ezra

1:8, 11). In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he

led the first band of Jews, numbering 42,360 (Ezra 2:64),

exclusive of a large number of servants, who returned from

captivity at the close of the seventy years. In the second

year after the Return, he erected an altar and laid the

foundation of the temple on the ruins of that which had

been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (3:8-13; ch. 4-6). All

through the work he occupied a prominent place, inasmuch as

David’s sister, and the mother of Abishai, Joab, and

Asahel (1 Chr. 2:16), who were the three leading heroes of

David’s army, and being his nephews, they were admitted

servant of the house of Saul” (2 Sam. 9:2), who

informed David that Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan, was

alive. He afterwards dealt treacherously toward

Mephibosheth, whom he slanderously misrepresented to

Naphtali (Josh. 19:35), has been identified with

Kefr-Hattin, the “village of the Hittites,” about

Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre. It

received its name from the “first-born” of

Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Gen. 10:15, 19). It was the

first home of the Phoenicians on the coast of Palestine,

and from its extensive commercial relations became a

“great” city (Josh. 11:8; 19:28). It was the

mother city of Tyre. It lay within the lot of the tribe of

Asher, but was never subdued (Judg. 1:31). The Zidonians

long oppressed Israel (Judg. 10:12). From the time of David

its glory began to wane, and Tyre, its “virgin

daughter” (Isa. 23:12), rose to its place of

pre-eminence. Solomon entered into a matrimonial alliance

with the Zidonians, and thus their form of idolatrous

worship found a place in the land of Israel (1 Kings 11:1,

33). This city was famous for its manufactures and arts, as

well as for its commerce (1 Kings 5:6; 1 Chr. 22:4; Ezek.

27:8). It is frequently referred to by the prophets (Isa.

23:2, 4, 12; Jer. 25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezek. 27:8; 28:21, 22;

32:30; Joel 3:4). Our Lord visited the “coasts”

of Tyre and Zidon = Sidon (q.v.), Matt. 15:21; Mark 7:24;

Luke 4:26; and from this region many came forth to hear him

preaching (Mark 3:8; Luke 6:17). From Sidon, at which the

ship put in after leaving Caesarea, Paul finally sailed for

i.e., “the flower month,” mentioned only in 1

Kings 6:1, 37, as the “second month.” It was

a family of Nethinim (Ezra 2:43; Neh. 7:46). (2.) A ruler

south country of Judah (Josh. 15:31), in the possession of

the Philistines when David fled to Gath from Ziph with all

his followers. Achish, the king, assigned him Ziklag as his

place of residence. There he dwelt for over a year and four

months. From this time it pertained to the kings of Judah

(1 Sam. 27:6). During his absence with his army to join the

Philistine expedition against the Israelites (29:11), it

was destroyed by the Amalekites (30:1, 2), whom David,

however, pursued and utterly routed, returning all the

captives (1 Sam. 30:26-31). Two days after his return from

this expedition, David received tidings of the disastrous

battle of Gilboa and of the death of Saul (2 Sam. 1:1-16).

He now left Ziklag and returned to Hebron, along with his

two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and his band of 600 men. It

has been identified with ‘Asluj, a heap of ruins south

of Beersheba. Conder, however, identifies it with Khirbet

Zuheilikah, ruins found on three hills half a mile apart,

some seventeen miles north-west of Beersheba, on the

of Lamech, of the line of Cain, and mother of Tubal-cain

handmaid, and the mother of Gad and Asher (Gen.

protection) of Jehovah. (1.) A Benjamite (1 Chr. 8:20).

(2.) One of the captains of the tribe of Manasseh who

celebrated, one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah (Gen.

of Salu, slain by Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, because of

his wickedness in bringing a Midianitish woman into his

south-eastern corner of the desert et-Tih, the wilderness

of Paran, between the Gulf of Akabah and the head of the

Wady Guraiyeh (Num. 13:21). To be distinguished from the

eminences on which Jerusalem was built. It was surrounded

on all sides, except the north, by deep valleys, that of

the Tyropoeon (q.v.) separating it from Moriah (q.v.),

which it surpasses in height by 105 feet. It was the

mountains of Judah (Josh. 15:54); the modern Si’air, 4

the northern border of Palestine (Num. 34:9), south-east of

Reuel’s daughter, who became the wife of Moses (Ex.

2:21). In consequence of the event recorded in Ex. 4:24-26,

she and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, when so far on

the way with Moses toward Egypt, were sent back by him to

her own kinsfolk, the Midianites, with whom they sojourned

cleft or pass, probably that near En-gedi, which leads up

from the Dead Sea (2 Chr. 20:16) in the direction of Tekoa;

“stronghold,” the modern San). A city on the

Tanitic branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It

was built seven years after Hebron in Palestine (Num.

13:22). This great and important city was the capital of

the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who ruled Egypt for more

than 500 years. It was the frontier town of Goshen. Here

Pharaoh was holding his court at the time of his various

interviews with Moses and Aaron. “No trace of Zoan

exists; Tanis was built over it, and city after city has

been built over the ruins of that” (Harper, Bible and

Modern Discovery). Extensive mounds of ruins, the wreck of

the ancient city, now mark its site (Isa. 19:11, 13; 30:4;

Ezek. 30:14). “The whole constitutes one of the

or south-east of the Dead Sea, to which Lot and his

daughters fled from Sodom (Gen. 19:22, 23). It was

originally called Bela (14:2, 8). It is referred to by the

prophets Isaiah (15:5) and Jeremiah (48:34). Its ruins are

still seen at the opening of the ravine of Kerak, the

Kir-Moab referred to in 2 Kings 3, the modern Tell

title), a Syrian province or kingdom to the south of

Coele-Syria, and extending from the eastern slopes of

Lebanon north and east toward the Euphrates. Saul and David

had war with the kings of Zobah (1 Sam. 14:47; 2 Sam. 8:3;

rocky plateau near the centre of the village of Siloam, and

near the fountain of En-rogel, to which the women of the

village resort for water (1 Kings 1:5-9). Here Adonijah

(q.v.) feasted all the royal princess except Solomon and

the men who took part with him in his effort to succeed to

the throne. While they were assembled here Solomon was

proclaimed king, through the intervention of Nathan. On

hearing this, adonijah fled and took refuge in the

sanctuary (1 Kings 1:49-53). He was afterwards

Job’s friends who came to condole with him in his

distress (Job 2:11. The LXX. render here “king of the

Mineans” = Ma’in, Maonites, Judg. 10:12, in

Southern Arabia). He is called a Naamathite, or an

watchers, a place in Moab on the range of Pisgah (Num.

23:14). To this place Balak brought Balaam, that he might

from thence curse the children of Israel. Balaam could only

speak the word of the Lord, and that was blessing. It is

the low country of Judah, afterwards given to Dan (Josh.

19:41; Judg. 18:2), probably the same as Zoreah (Josh.

15:33). This was Samson’s birthplace (Judg. 13:2, 25),

and near it he found a grave (16:31). It was situated on

the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek, and

was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr. 11:10). It has been

identified with Sur’ah, in the Wady Surar, 8 miles west

of Jerusalem. It is noticed on monuments in the fifteenth

Levite, ancestor of Elkanah and Samuel (1 Sam. 1:1); called

a district in which lay Samuel’s city, Ramah. It was

probably so named after Elkanah’s son, Zuph (1 Chr.

Midianite kings whom the Israelites defeated and put to

the family of the Merarites (Num. 3:35) at the time of the

Almighty, the father of Shelumiel, who was chief of the

tribe of Simeon when Israel was encamped at Sinai (Num.

were smitten “in Ham” by Chedorlaomer and his

allies (Gen. 14:5). Some have identified this tribe with