A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

James Hastings • SECTION 1362

Section 1362

← A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 4

A imiversalism akin to that expressed in Jn 4"'' has sometimes been attributed to Zephaniah upon the ground of 2" ('men shall worship him, every one from his place ') 3»- "> ; but in the first-named passage the words we have italicised are of uncer- tain meaning (but see Davidson), and all three passages lie under strong suspicion of belonging to a later age than that of Zephaniah.

It may be added that the Book of Zephaniah ia

• This verse gave rise to the medifflval pictures of St. 2eph anioh carrying a lantern in his left hand.

ZEPHATH

ZERETH-SHAHAR

977

»ne of those from which the figure of the Messianic king is entirely absent. The standpoint of the prophet was indeed such as almost necessarily to preclude the appearance of any such conception.

LiTBRATURB.— Driver, LOT» (1897). np 340-843; Wildoboer, LM d. J/y. (lS9o) pp. 189-103; the KinUituivjen of CornUlS (5 35. 3). Ed. Konig (1S93), pp. 352-351 ; Strack » (ISUS). p. \l»(. : Uaudissiri (1901), pp. 550-555.

Commentaries ; F. A. Strauss, Vaticinia Zejih. ecrm. Ulustr. 1843; Hiuig - Steiner in A'<(/. tirij. lldb. (isal); H. Ewald (1S0T-6S). Propheti, En(; tr. iii. 14-20 ; E. B. Puscy, The ilinur rrii}ihel$; von Orclli in StraokZorkkr's A';;/. Kom.; L. Reinke (Horn. Cath.X Ver Frojih. Zeph. 1808; W. Schiili, Com. ilher d. I'ruph. Zeph. 1892 ; Wellhausen, Die kleinen I'roplttlen (1893), pp. 2»-3l, 147-155; A. B. Daviilaon, 'Naliuni, llabaltliuk, and Zeplianiah ' in Camb. Bible, 1S96 (a most valualile work); No- wack. "Die kleinon Pronheten ' in JIdkom. z. A.T. (1S97) pp. 874-298; J. T. Beck, Erklarumj der ITopheten Hahum u. Zephanja, 1899 (a curious work, with an interest of its own, but without anv scienliflc value).

.Misu-ellan'cous : F. W. Farrar, 'The Minor Prophets' in .Wen «l/(A<- iJiW« series (1890), pp. 153-158; Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the J'roultete (\«)2). pp. 253-203 ; W. K. Smith, art. ' Zenhaniah ' in Encyc. Brit."; Buhl on Zeph 21'" 3'7i'- in ZATH' (1SS5), p 18311. ; Schwallv. 'Das Bvich Zcphanja,' ib. (1890) p. 105(1. ; Bacher on Zeph 23, ih. (1801) pp. 1851., 2C0ff.; Buddc, SK (1893), p. 303 If.; Itachmann, ' Zur Textkrilik dcs Propheten Zephanja,' ii. (1894), p. 641 fl. J. A. SELBIE.

ZEPHATH (n;s ; B and Luc. Zetpix, A Z^pep).— See li"KM.\il, and luld to the Literature there Dillui. on Nu li*^ and Moore on Jg 1".

ZEPHATH AH.— According to MT of 2 Ch WW As.i joined battle witli Zerah the Cushite in the valley of Zepliathah (nrjs «■?) at Maresliah. No such place is known to us fc):,ewhere in (JT, and it is not unlikely that the LXX Kara ^oppav [i.e. k;33 .1;:^ instead ot npja k'j;] ilapcla-ns, ' to the north of Maresliah,' has preserved the original reading.

ZEPHL ZEPHO.— A son of Eliphaz, and one of tlie 'dukes' of Edom, Gn 36"- " (is? Zepho, LXX Zuirpdp) = 1 Ch 1™ ("?5 Zephi, 15A i:M0ap, Luc. ^c:T<pouri). It is impossible to decide between the claims of the two forms of the name, nor can its ethnological signification be determined.

ZEPHON, ZEPHONITE.— See Zaphon.

ZER (is).— A ' fenced' city of Xaphtali, Jos 19". It follows Ziddim (properly //«;iiW'/»»i [with art.]). The LXX tr. v." kuI al v6\ei.t reixw"' '■'^'' Tupiui;' [i.e. Dnsn], Ti/pos [i.e. li], <c.t.\., but it is difficult to supi)08e that this can be correct. Ha??iddim may be the modern tlaitin, near Isam I^idlin, N.\V. of Tiberias (so Talni.; see Neubauer, p. '207). The identity of Zcr is t|uite uncertain. Conjectures as to tlie site are noted in Dillra. Jos. ad loc.

ZERAH (iTi! ; LXX Zipa, Z6.pt ; Mt 1» Zopd).— 1. One of the sons of Keuel, the son of Esau by his Canaanitish, or Ishmaelite, wife, Ba.seniath (Gn 36"- ", 1 Ch V"). The name apnears again as that of the father of Jobab, one of the early kings of K<lom (Gn 36^, 1 Ch 1"). 2. The younger bom of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar his daughter- in-law. The peculiar circuni.stancesof his birth are made to account for his name (Gn .38*' [J]). He gives his name to the Zerahites (Nu 20-^). Of this family was .Vchan the son of Zabdi {Zap-^pel, LXX Jos 7' ; Zimri, 1 Ch 2*), who took of the spoil of Ai contrary to the Divine command. Zerah's sons are mentioned 1 Ch 9", and rctliahiah (Neh 11'-') is one of his descendants. He linds a place along with PEREZ his twin brother in the gene- alogy of our Lord (Mt 1'). 3. A son of Simeon, anil the founder of a family of Zerahites within that tribe (Nu 20'*, 1 Ch 4-'^) ; called alho Zohar (Gn •IG"', Ex G"). 4. A Levitc name, borne bv a Geislionito (1 Ch 6=') and by a Kolialhite (1 Ch 6^'). 8. The name of the Cushite ('2 Ch 14"'») who invaded Judah in the reign of Asa (c. 911-871 B.C.), vou IV.— 6«

and sufTered a disastrous defeat at Maresliah In the south-west of the land.

The invasion of Judah by Zerab the Cushite la unknown to secular history, and rests solely upon the authority of the Chronicler. This circumstance, together with the fact that the name of Zerah the Cushite does not appear in any list of the kinps of E[^ypt, has led Wellhausen (/fwfon/ o/ Israel, p. 207), Stade, and otiiers to pronounce the narrative unhistorical. It is, they say, an invention conceived for the pur|X)se of mak- ing the historical overthrow of Rehoboam into a triumph on ttie part of his descendant : it had its origin at llie time when Cushites ruled in Egypt, and tran^ferrtd a condition of atTairs which was true of a later time to the days of Asa. But this is an excess of historical scepticism. There is nothing in the inscriptions inconsistent with the narrative of the Chronicler.* 'There is so little known,' says Wiedemaim {Geschiclite von Alt. AgypUn, p. 155), 'from tiie time of Osorkon I. that it cannot be considered i)e\ ond the bounds of probability for an Etliiopian invader to iiuve made himyelf master of the Nile Valley for a time in his reign, and for him and not Usorkon I. to be the Zerah of the Chronicler.' Zerah was identified by Champollion {Pride du SysUme hieroijly. phique-, pp. 257-262) with Osorkon i., the second king of the 22na dynasty ; and the identification has been accepted by Ewald and others. The discovery of M. Naville in the ruins of Bubastis{/>'u^a*(i*', pp. 50, 51 f.; Sayce, 11 CM p. 363) goes rather to connect the invasion with Osorkon il., who is made to declare on a moniunent that * the Upper and Lower Jtuteimu have been thrown under his feet." This would show that Osorkon ii. had been engaged in a campaign in Palestine, wtiicii is designated Upper Ivutennu in the geographical language of Egvpt. Homniel (J/77' p. 315n. ; cf. Ball, LiijIU from the East, \i'. 82) thinks that Zerah and his Cushites were from South Arabia, a view which is favoured by the character of the spoils,— tents, sheep, and camels, — as well as by the very name Zerah, which resembles Zirrikh or Dhirrih, a royal name in the newly -found Sabaian inscriptions. This view is fa\oured,too, by the designa- tion of the people as 'Aii^^o^us in the LXX (2Ch 141S), which may be compared with the bdnu Mazirit the Ua'din of the same inscription.!

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