Meanwhile the Egyptian army, commanded by Apries in person, was advancing from the south to the relief of his ally (Jos. Ant. X. vii. 3), and captured Gaza, and compelled the Chaldaians to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus (I.e.) states that the two armies met in a pitched battle, and that the Egj'ptians were put to flight and driven out of all Syria. From Jer 37' we shcmld infer no more than that Pharaoh was forced to retreat to his OAvn land. The Chaldeean army had no sooner withdrawn than the base people of Jerusalem broke faith with their slaves and reduced them to bondage again — a step which called forth an in- dignant protest from the prophet (Jer 34'"''-). Meanwhile there were constant desertions to the Chaldrean army (Jer 37" 38"> 39» 52"), caused at least in .some measure by the predictions of Jere- miah. The burden of his utterances during the siege was that the city and all its contents was doomed, but that individual deserters would save their own lives (21° 38^- "). We cannot wonder then that the anti-Chalda^an party regarded him as a dangerous traitor (38*), and viewed with sus- picion his relations with the king. In fact, after lie had been sentenced to imprisonment, Zedekiah could only see him by stealth (37" 3S'«).
The relieving force having been completely re- pulsed, the besiegers once more closed round the doomed city. Josephus displayed a true historical spirit in describing the siege in the light of bia own experiences. It must have been an almost exact counterpart, in the desperate courage and the horrors of it, to the siege under Titus. There were the same circles of forts to keep the blockade, the battering-rams against the gates, the 'mounts' built high to overtop the city walls (2 K 25', Jer 32-», Ezk i- 17" 21*" 26'-»), while the besieged strained all their powers of mind and body U) erect counter works, destroying even the royal palace to find building material (Jer 33'). But deadlier than the missiles of the Chalda>ans weie the pestilence and the famine (Jer 21''- '• » 32» 34" 38^- » La 5'», Ezk 5'=- '«• ", Bar 2»), with the supreme horror of cannibalism (Jer 19*, La 2'"''* 4"*, Ezk 5'"). The city yielded at last to famine (Jer 52"), and on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, about midnight the six generals who had been conducting the siege entered through a breach and sat in grim state in the middle temple gate (Jer39' ; Jos. Ant. X. viii. 2 ; cf. Ezk 9-).
In the confusion that followed, Zedekiah with his household and most of the surviving defender!
ZEEB
ZEPHANIAH
973
of tlie city broke tlirou;,'li the cordon of the be- siegers ; they were betrayed, however, by some of the deserters, and had only succeeded in reaoliing the plains of Jericho when they were overtaken. The unfortunate king was conveyed to Riblah to the presence of Nebuchadrezzar, who ' spake with liiin of judgment,' taxing him, according to Josephus, with perjury and ingratitude. With a relinenient of cruelty his eyes were put out, but not until he had seen the slaughter of hiB children.
Josephua calls attention to the remarkable manner in which the (ate of Zetickiah fulfilled two apparently discrepant pro- phcL'ies of Jc-rtiiiiah and Ezekiel TL-spectively. 'Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the kin^j of liabylon, and he shall s^teak with thee mouth to mouth, atid thou" shalt go to liabylon' (Jer 34-'), and ' 1 will brin;r him to liabylon, to the land of the Chalda:ans; yet shall be not see it, though he shall die there' (Ezk 12'a).
In all probability, Zedekiah did not long survive his misfortunes. We hear no more of liim. The hope of Israel henceforth centres round the more innocent captive, his nephew Jeconiah (2 K 25-'').
5. A ' prince ' who ' sealed unto the covenant ' at Nehemiah's reformation (Xeh 10').
N. J. D. White.
ZEEB.— See Okeb.
ZELA(H). — A Benjamite city, Jos 1S=« {vh^, LXX om.), where was the family buryingplace of Saul (2 S 21" vS' [here EV needlessly confuses by writing Zela/i], LXX if r-j irXevpf [taking it for V>s ' side 'J). Its site has not been discovered.
ZELEK (p'ri). — An Ammonite, one of David's heroes, 2 S 23^' (B 'ENa^, A i:^(.\e7J, Luc. ZaXadS} = I Ch 1 1** (B ZiXri, A Sf \\i)/().
ZELOPHEHAD (iijci-?).— A Manassite who died during the wilderness journeyings, leaving no male issue. His five daughters successfully as- serted their claim to the inheritance of their father (Nu 26»' 27'"' 36-"", Jos 17', 1 Ch 7"). See vol. ii. pp. 1'29'' and 341". The LXX readings are : B laXruai eJit-ept in 1 Ch 7" ZairipadS ; A 2a.\?rad5 except in Jos 17' SoX^odo {bis).
ZELZAH.— In 1 S 10» Samuel tells Saul : 'When thou art departed from me to-day, then thou shalt liiul two men by llachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin niSsx' The last word is rendered by AV and UV 'at Zelzah.' But there are grave reasons for suspecting the correctness of this. No place of such a name is known to us, nor should we expect any further definition after the specilic mention of ' Kachel's sepulchre.' The LXX trans- lates by dXXo/wVouj Aie7dAa 'leaping mightily ' (Ew. ' in grosser Eile ') ; dXXo/«'i'ous=D'n^i (v.''). But, as Driver points out, though Sv nSx may mean (meta- phorically) leap u/ion, we are not justified in at- tributing to n>!( absolutely the sense of leapinc/. Moreover, i^cydXa as an adverb does not occur elsewhere in the LXX, and Wellh. is doubtless riglit in regarding it as simply a lleb. word written in Greek letters and transformed into something significant in Greek (for other instances of a siiiiihir kind see Driver, Text of Sam. GO n.). lie himself takes dXXo/if'i'oi;? /it-ydXo to be doublets wliich have arisen from the words in "^riKwy. tv BaKoXdfl which are found in several MSS after the word Ufi'ia/Mii'. See, more fully, his Text d. Buchcr Ham. 73 f.; and cf. Driver and Lblir, who take practically the same view of the passage.