8. Literature since the discovery of the Hebrew texts : On the puiilication o( the text* by Schechter, C'owley-.N'eubauer (Siuend, l,evi), Schechter-Taylor, G. Margoliouth, I. Levi, E. N. Adler, Schechter, Caster, sec above, p. 54(j'>. The Hjrpuftlnnj Times, \o\. vii., has two, voL viii. again tvio references to Sirach (p. 2152, a review of Uogg on C-N), vol. ix. one, vol. x. seven, vol. xi. tweiitv-four such references (by the editor, Kuiiig, D. S. Mir iliouth, 8. Schechter, J. A. Selbie, I. Alirahams, Eh. N. . • . U. Taylor, W. Bacher). The record of 'Theological and .-i. ii./ic- Literature for the year 1900,' publislled liy Musa-Arnolt (Chii.Mfc'o, llKXJ), enumerates thirty papers, published (1900) in tweiitv-two different periodicals. See also JQR: Adler, llarkavy, D. S. Margoliouth, Levi, Schechter, Tyler; /.'A'.'; Bacher, Chajes, Laiiiiiert, L.ivi ; ZATtt' : Bacher, Nbldeke; Jill: Condauiin, Oriinme, Touzard. Ed. Konig, in addition to his lupcrs in the lixj>oi:it:>ri( Timeii, which were pulilished «ep.initclv in Oemian (Die Orininatitdt des neiUicli enuhrklni Siraclilizles), wrote in four other iieriodicals. Cf., further, in .Minuf-Arnolt, pp. S2-34, the names: Bulil, Klournoix, llalevy, Uoul.xina, M^cbineaux, NoordtziJ, rctcrs, Byssel (in .S/i, !9(Kl, 3, 4, 19"1, 1, 2, 4, a very careful comparison of lb with <S ar.d S, to be continued), Schlogl, Strauss, Wilson, Zcnner. U. UaenUf A, In 'J'heol. Jahresb. tor 1900, notes 01 books or papers on Sirach. Even on the Strophic structure ot Sirach several papers have liecn published by H. Orinmic (at first in lili, 1900-1901 ; llieri separatclv, Leipzi;,', Harrassowitz) ; by Norb.Tt Peters (Thrnl. I^iuirlals'chri/I, lUDO, pp. 180-19:1) ; f by Nivard S^-lilogl in ZDMO lili. (IsW.O.pp. (i<iil-0s2, and/i'ci;;i'»ia<(icu*(:i»'--lli"i;up>>ar(i/icni(. et metr. infonnam originalem rMactus, Wieli, 1901, xxxv.72,4to. It will be a long time before all the questions connected with Sirach are settledand a critical edition becomes pos.sible
Eb. Nfjstle.
SIRAH, The Well of (n-ipn ■i\3 ; BA t6 (pp^ap toO Zeeipdfi., Luc. Xeeipd). — Tlie place at wliicli .loab's mesBcngers overtook Abner, and brought him liack to Hebron, where lie wa.s a-ssa-ssinateJ bj- Joab (2 S 3"; .Jos. Ant. VII. i. 5, l?7)iT<pd). It lay on the road from Hebron to Jerusalem, and is now probalily 'Ain Hdrah, near Hebron, the ' spring' ('ain) having taken the place of the 'well' (bir). The spring Buw» from a spout into a small tank, and stands liack from the road in a little alley with walls of dry stone on either side (I'EF Mem. iii. 314).
C. W. Wilson.
SIRION {tiv in Dt 3» ; plv' MT and haer, but Mieli. p-!»', in Pa 21)").— The name said to be given
• N'cbuchadnezzar wishes to know whether Ben Sira is a piophet, and a.ik« of him the number of trees in the royal ganlens. Ben Sira answers that there are thirty kinds : of ten the whole fruit may be ealen ; of ten the kernel; of ten the outer narta. Low gives the list, which is found also in the Bund'heah, on the basis of five text«.
1 A great work on Sirach by Norbert Peters lj advertised for laoi by Herder ot Freiburg.
by the Zidonians to .Mr. Hermon, Dt 3» CZavuL-p). Like Senik, it may have originally been the desig- nation of a particuhtr part of the mountain. In I's '2'/, where Sirion is coupled with Lebanon, the LXX (confusing with \i-\v' Je-^/iurun ; cf. its render- ing in Dt 32'^ 33'- ^, Is 44*) reads o rryaTrrjiUvos.
SISERA («!;•? ; 2ei<rapd, meaning doubtful ; cf. AssjT., sasiir 'progeny,' — Sayce, Hibbert Lecti. 373. Ball, Light from the East, s.v., gives the As.syr. form sUseru, seseru, 'child.' Moore, Judges, 112, thinks that the name is not Semitic, and compares Hittite names endin" in -sira, 5tasira, Maiirasira, etc., — W. Max MUUer, Asien u. Europa, 332). — 1. Jg 4 and 5, 1 S 12», Ps 83". The hisUiry of Sisera is told in a poetic (Jg 5) and a prose form (.Jg 4). In the main particulars both agree, but they differ considerably on some important points. The Song of Deborah, as being nearer in date to the events recorded, must be treated as the more authentic source. (1) In 4*"'^ Jabin, king of Ilazor, is introduced into the history of Sisera. He is not mentioned in ch. 5, he takes no part in the battle, and his city Hazor, \l=^Mcrj Hadire (or near it), a little S. of Kedesh and W. of the lake of IJuleh, is far away from the scene of the conflict, and brings imjiossible situations into the narrative. Sisera is throughout the actual and independent leader ; his forces are his own (cf. 4" with 4") ; to slay hini is to carry off the honours of the tight (4"). This Jabin-tradition is of the same charac- ter as the fragments preserved in Jg 1, and forms the ba-sis of the history in Jos II'-"[JE]. How it came to be combined with the Sisera-tradition is not clear ; perhaps because both were concerned with lighting in Upper Palestine, and because the nortliern tribes and Canaanites -were the com- batants in both cases.* The combination must be earlier than the work of the redactor (4'-^- ■">■»«• 1*1. -.21. -^4)^ ^viiQ provided the narrative with an intro- duction and conclusion (vv.'-*- '•^'•), and gave Jabin, who is called merely king of Hazor in v.", the un- historical title of 'king of Caniuan' (4-- ="'•). It is noticeable that 1 S 12* and Ps 83" imply the com- bination of the Jabin- and Sisera-traditions. (2) In order to harmonize these, Sisera had to be made the general of .labin's army (4'''- ') ; and this must liave been done before the redactor dealt with the narrative. (3) The campaign is on a larger scale in ch. 5 than in ch. 4. In the former Sisera appears at tlie head of a federation of Canaanite kings (5'°), and attacks the six tribes bordering on the Central Plain. In ch. 4 only Naphtali and Zebu- lun are engaged (v.") ; the mention of tlie.se two tribes only and of Kedesli their headquarters (v.'") was probably an element in the Jabin-story. (4) The scene of the battle in o" is the left bank of the Kislion ; this implies that Barak advanced against Sisera from the S.W. and fell upon him from the Carmel range. In 4'-- '•■ Barak attacks the Canaanites from Mt. Tabor, and the battle apparently takes place at its foot, (o) The accounts ol Siseia's murder present a striking divergence. In ch. .5 Jael, by an ingenious stratagem, kills him with a tent-mallet while he is sUinding and drink- ing out of a deep bowl ; in ch. 4 slie hammers a tent-peg through his temples while he lies asleep in her tent. Some explain this divergence as a prosaic misunderstanding of the iiarallelism of .')-" (so Wellhauscn, Composition 222; Kobertson Smith, OTJC 132), but it is more likely to be due to a different tradition. One important detail is proserved in ch. 4 alone— that Sisera's stronghold wa.s yaroslieth hag-goyim (4'^- '*"•). 'Phis place has been plausibly identiiicd with cl-IJ((rit/it!/eh, on