ZIPHAH (n?!).— A son of Jerahmeel, 1 Ch 4"
(B Za(pa., A Zai0d, Luc. Zi0<i).
ZIPHION. — See Zapuon. ZIPHRON. - See
SinuAiM.
ZIPPOR (-ii2v, twice [Nu 22"' 23'»] t2V).— Father of Balak king of Moab, Nu 22=-''-'»'9 23'8, Jos 24", Jg 11^ (all Zeircpuip). The name, which doubt- less in this case and in that of Zipporah has a totemistic significance, means ' sparrow.'
ZIPPORAH (msv ; SeTr^iipa). — One of the daughters of the priest of Midian, Ex 2"- ^ (J), wife of Moses and mother of Gershom. According to 18^ (E) she had another son.* For the part played by her in connexion with the circumcbion of Gershom, i-*"- (J), see art. CIRCUMCISION, vol. i. p. 443*. Zipporah, who was a Midianitess, cannot of course be the ' Cushite woman ' (see vol. iii. p. 442'' notet) of Nu 12'. On the name Zipporah see preceding article.
ZIY.— See art. Time, p. 765*.
ZIZ.— The ascent (AV wrongly 'clifr') of Ziz(n^VP |"sn ; BA 17 di-ajSaffis 'Acrae, Luc. . . . ' .Kinai) is only once mentioned in the Bible (2 Ch 20'"), and is generally d.assed among unidentified sites. The context, however, leaves no doubt in the mind of the present writer as regards identification. It is the ascent to a clitf, rising above the plain of the Dead .Sea near En-gedi on the edge of the table- land or wilderness of Judaea (see En-GEDI). Conder says of this spot : ' On tlie south are the wolds of the Negeb plateau, with the plains of Beersheba beyond. On the ea.st is the "Solitude," with white peaks and cones of chalk, and deep and narrow watercourses, terminated by the great pointed cliff of Ziz, above Engedi, and by the precipices over the Dead Sea, 200U ft. high' (Tent- Work in Palestine, p. 244). The gorge lying at its base offers one of the few ways of ascent from the western shore of the Dead Sea to the tableland of Jud:ea, and, on the occasion in connexion with which 7Af is mentioned, was selected by the hosts of Amnion, Moab, and Edom for a combined attack on the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Jehoslia- pli.it. The attack, liowever, in answer to prayer, proved disastrous to the invaders (cf. IIGUL 272).
E. HlTLL.
ZIZA (Ki'i). — 1. A Simeonite chief who took part in the raid on Gedor, 1 Ch 4" (B and Luc. om.,
• The ■ son» ' ot MT In Ex 420 is from the hand ot a redactor See art 'M08K8. vol. iii. p. 439» note t.
ZIZAH
ZOAR
985
A Zoi.fd). 2. A son of Rehoboam, 2 Ch 11» (B Zeiid, A Zifi).
ZIZAH (m-!).— A Gershonite Levite, 1 Ch 23". The name, prob. by a copyist's error, appears in v.'" as Zina (ij'')- LXX has in both verses Zifd. One Heb. MS, cited by Kennitott, also reads .ij'i in v.'».
ZOAN dVi, Tdi-it, Tanis. The Coptic Jani re- sembles the Hebrew and the Arabic San, but a Christian Coptic MS, containing a list of bishops, bears witness to the Greek pronunciation with 7. [Amelineau, Gin(jrnphie dc VEqyj^fe, 1S93, p. 413 f.]). — A city of Egypt which the LXX bj- llicir render- ing identify witli the city known to the Greeks as Tanis. It is described by Greek writers as a ' great city' (Strabo, ildneke, c. 802; Stephauus Byzant. in iiis list of cities), and the branch of the Nile on which it was situated was called from it the Tan- aitic mouth. The city declined in importance when the river which flowed by it ceased to be a main waterway ; and the surrounding country, which in ancient times was rich jjasture ground, is now salt marsh and lake. An insignilicant collection of dwellings (known as S.an on the Muiz canal), chiolly inhabited by lishermen who ply their trade on the neighbouring lake Menzaleh, marks the site of this once flourishing city. But widely scattered around are ruins which bear witness to its former greatness. From very early times it was a centre of worship, and successive dynasties enriched the city with costly buildings and obelisks which (such is the opinion of these who have ex- plored the site) equ.-illed, perhaps in some respects surpassed, many of tlu temples which have been more fortunately preserved.
The references to this city in Is. and Ezk. are in accord with the testimony of the monuments and of Greek writers. Isaiah (19"- '^^ SO') describes it as the aljode of jirinces and counsellors, and Ezekiel (*.»") includes it in a list of the principal cities doomed to destruction. The note in Nu 1.3^ that ' Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt,' opens up a wide field of conjecture, but yields little by way of lertain inference. Hebron was regarded as an ancient city, existing in the time of Abraham, and the note implies that Zoan also was an ancient city, built before the migration of the Hebrews into Egj'pt ; but wliether anything more (such as community of origin) is sugj^ested bv the comparison is doubtful. The question of ni'ist interest to the biblical student in conne.xion with Z lan is: Was this city, already flourishing when Israel came into Egypt, in any way connected with their sojourn there T It is known that in E.xodus the name Zoan does not occur. Rameses is mentioned (Ex 12") as the place from which the chililren of Israel set out on their journeyings. But in 1*8 78, which recounts the womlers which God had wrought for Israel, ' the held of Zoan ' is twice mentioned (vv."-**) as the scene of the plagues. The I'saliiiist may have used this expression as a poetical parallelism to ' the land of Egj'pt,' just as Isaiah places the ' princes of Zoan ' in parallelism with the ' counsellors of Pharaoh,' and the only inference to be drawn from the pa.ssage is that the Psalmist knew Zoan as a very important city. It is [)Ossible that the use of Zoan may lie due to a t^ailition not elsewhere preserved. Ebers [Diirc/i GosKn zum Hinai, p. 498) gives an inscription in which the words ' the field of Zoan ' occur.