Zerah
ZerahorZérach(זֶרַח /זָרַח "sunrise"Standard HebrewZéraḥ/Záraḥ,Tiberian HebrewZéraḥ/Zāraḥ) refers to several people in theHebrew Bible.[1]
An Edomite
[edit]Zerah was the name of anEdomitechief. He was listed as the second son ofReuel,son ofBasemath,who wasIshmael's daughter and one of the wives ofEsauthe brother ofJacob (Israel)(Genesis 36:13, 17).
Son of Tamar and Judah
[edit]According to theBook of Genesis,Zerah was the son ofTamarandJudah,and was the twin ofPerez(Genesis 38:30). This same Zerah is mentioned in thegenealogy of JesusinMatthew 1:3.
Zerah is also listed as the ancestor ofAchan,who was stoned to death as recounted in theBook of Joshua(Joshua 7:1). Achan is the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri, the son of Zerah.
Simeonite clan
[edit]The Bible also identifies Zerah as the name of the founder of one of theSimeoniteclans.[2]
The Cushite
[edit]Zerah theCushiteis mentioned by theBook of Chronicles(2 Chronicles 14:9–15). There he is said to have invaded theKingdom of Judahwith an enormous army in the days ofAsa.According to the text, when Zerah's army reached that of Asa at the valley of Zephathah near Mareshah, Zerah's army wasutterly defeated,by divine intervention, and Asa's forces collected a large volume of spoils of war.
The invasion, and its implied time-frame, means that the traditional view was to consider this Zerah to have actually beenUsarkon IIorUsarkon I,[3]both being rulers ofEgypt.Usarkon II is known to have entered the Kingdom of Judah with a huge army in 853 BCE; however, rather than attacking Judah, the army was just passing through on its way to attack theAssyrianforces. In addition, Asa's reign is traditionally dated to have ended in 873 BCE. In theBook of Kings,which doesn't mention Asa's defeat of Zerah, Asa is described as being extremely weak from a defensive point of view (1 Kings 15:16–22), andBiblical scholarsregard the idea that Asa could defeat an enormous Egyptian army to be untenable.[4]More recent scholars consider that Zerah the Cushite may have been a military commander under Osorkon I rather than a Pharaoh.[5]
Furthermore,Cushiterefers toKush.It is unclear why either Usarkon should be described as aCushite.[6]The name “Zerah” may have been a corruption of “Usarkon” (U-Serak-on), to which it closely resembles (see Petrie, Egypt and Israel, 74), but most scholars do not identify Zerah with Usarkon II. The publication by Naville (1891) of an inscription in which Usarkon II would claim to have invaded Lower and Upper Palestine suggests this Pharaoh as the victor over Asa. However, the Bible contends that Asa won the battle.
It is a possibility thatCushitesgained dominance in Upper and Lower Egypt during the 9th and 8th century. Zerah was most likely a Cushite of Nubia located in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan who came to power as ruler of Egypt or at the very least a Nubian commander of The Egyptian/Nubian armies.William F. Albrightsuggested that Zerah was the governor of a Cushite colony which had been established by Shishak after his campaign in Israel.[7]Isaiah 18:2tells us that the Cushites (Ethiopians) were feared far and wide for conquests and destruction (being a powerful nation who dominated ancient kingdoms). Cushites were a very formidable people who were expert archers famous in the ancient world for surprise attacks with the bow and arrow.[6]
In the genealogies of the Book of Chronicles
[edit]The Book of Chronicles mentions a Zerah who was a GershoniteLevite(1 Chr. 6:6; 6:26).
References
[edit]
- ^For the etymology seeChad Brand; Archie England; Charles W. Draper (2003).Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.B&H Publishing Group. p. 2403.ISBN978-1-4336-6978-1.
- ^Numbers 26:13
- ^Cheyneand Black,Encyclopedia Biblica(1899).
- ^Encyclopædia Britannica,"Asa"
- ^Pierce, Krystal V. L. (2022)."Egypt and the Levant in the Third Intermediate Period (Iron IB–IIIA)".In Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce, George A. (eds.).The Ancient Israelite World.Taylor & Francis. p. 664.ISBN978-1-000-77324-8.
- ^abCheyne and Black,Commentary on the Bible
- ^Albright, W. F. (1924).Egypt and the Early History of the Negeb.Palestine Oriental Society.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Easton, Matthew George(1897). "Zerah".Easton's Bible Dictionary(New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
Further reading
[edit]- Zerah the Kushite: A New Proposal Regarding His Identity (with Peter James), in: P. James and P. van der Veen (eds.), Solomon and Shishak, BAR International Series 2732, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2015[1]
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