As to the identification of Zerah with a Usarken, We speak diffidently. That he is called a Cushite must be compared with the occurrence of the name Namuret, Nirarod, in the line of the Usarkens, but that line seems rather to have been of Eastern than of Western Ethio- pians. The name Usarken has been thought to be Sargon, in which case it is inilikely, but not impossible, that another Hebrew or Shemitic name should have been adopted to represent the Egyptian form. On the other hand, the kings of the twentj'-second dj'nasty were of a warlike family, and their sons constantly held military commands. It is unlikely that an important army would have been intrusted to any but a king or prince. Usarken is less remote from Zerah than seems at first sight, and, according to our computation, Zerah might have been Usarken II, but according to Dr. Hincks's, Usarken I.
5. Preternatural Character of the Deliverance. — The defeat of the Egyptian army by Asa is without parallel in the history of the Jews. On no other occasion did an Israelitish army meet an army of one of the great powers on either side and defeat it. Shishak was un- opposed; Sennacherib was not me^in the field ;-Nccho was so met, and overthrew Josiah's array; Nebuchad- nezzar, like Shishak, was only delayed by fortifications. The defeat of Zerah thus is a solitary instance, more of the power of faith than of the bravery of the Hebrews, a single witness that the God of Israel was still- the same who had led his people through the I!cd Sea, and would give them the same aid if they trusted in him. W'e have, indeed, no distinct statement that the defeat of Zerah was a miracle, but we have proof enough that God providentially enabled the Hebrews to vanquish a force greater in number, stronger in the appliances of war, with horsemen and chariots, more accurate in dis- cipline, no raw levies hastily equipped from the king's armory, but a seasoned standing militia, strengthened and more terrible by the addition of swarms of hungry Arabs, bred to war. and whose whole life was a time of pillage. This great deliverance is one of the many proofs that (iod is to his people ever the same, whether he bids them stand still and behold his salvation, or nerves them with that courage that has wrought great things in his name in our later age; thus it bridges over a chasm between two periods outwardly unlike, and bids us see in history the immutability of the di- vine actions. See Egypt.
ZERAHIAH
1088
ZERUBBABEL
Zerahi'ah (Heb. Zerachyah', •T'H'!' !» Jehovah has risen ; Sept. 'Zapata v. r. Zapaia), the name of two He- brews.
1. A priest, son of Uzzi and father of Meraioth, in the ancestry of the^later Jewish pontiffs (1 Chron. vi, 6, 51 [Heb. V, 32 ; vi, 30]), and of Ezra (Ezra vii. 4). B.C. cir. 1350. See High-priest.
2. Father of Elihoenai "of the sons of Pahath-moab" (Ezra viii, 4). B.C. ante 459,
Zeraim. See Talmud.
Ze'red (Heb. id. Tit [in pause Za'red, "Tit, Dcut. ii, 13; "Zared," Numb, xxi, 12], o«iVr-brook; Sept. Za- peS V, r. Zapir and Zapi), the name of a brook or vallej' (bns) on the border between j\Ioab and Edom (Deut. ii, 13), where the Israehtes encamped before crossing the Arnon (Numb, xxi, 12). It seems to be the same with the W'adi/ el-. 4 hsy, which runs into the Dead Sea near its S.E. corner (Kobinson, Bibl. lies, ii, 157). La- borde, arguing from the distance, thinks that the source of the Wad]/ Ghurundel in the Arabah is the site, as from Jlount Hor to el-Ahsy is by way of Ezion-geber sixty-five leagues, in which only four stages occur — a rate of progress quite beyond their power. This argu- ment, however, is feeble, since it is clear that the march- stations mentioned indicate not daily stages, but more permanent encampments. He also thinks the palm- trees of Wady Ghurundel would have attracted notice, and that Wady Jethum (el-Ithm) could not have been the way consistently with the precept of Deut, ii, 3. The camping station in the catalogue of Numb, xxiii, which corresponds to the '"pitching in the valley of Ze- red"of xxi, 12, is probably Dibon-gad, as it stands next to Ije-abarim (comp. xxxiii, 44, 45 with xxi, 12). The Wady el-Ahsy forms the boundary between the districts of Jebal and Kerak, Taking its rise near the castle of el-Ahsy, on the route of the Syrian Haj, upon the high eastern desert, it breaks down through the whole chain of mountains (Burckhardt, Ti-avels, p. 400) in a very deep ravine, and contains a hot spring which the Arabs call the "Bath of Solomon son of David" (Irby, Jlay 29). The Israelites doubtless crossed it near its upper end, where it would present no difficulty. See Ex- ode,
The Jewish interpreters translate the name in the first case "osiers," and in the second " baskets'" (Targiun of Pseudo-Jonathan ), which recalls the "brook of the willows" of Isaiah (xv, 7). The name Siijhif {wWXow) is attached to the valley which runs down from Kerak to the Dead Sea; but this appears to be too far north for the Zered, — Smith; Kitto, See Willows, Brook
OF THE,
Zer'eda(Heb.\?iththeart,/«rt/s-r.wer7fr/i', pi'i'^Sri, the fortress [ Furst] or the cool [Gesen.] ; Sept. »'/ 'S.cipiCa V. r. '2apipa ; Vulg. Sareda), a town in Mount Ephraim, the birthplace of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (1 Kings xi, 26). In an addition made by the Sept. to ch. xii, Sarira (as this place is called by some MSS.) is said.to have been built by Jeroboam for Solomon, and it is stated that to it .Jeroboam returned when he came out of Eg\'pt, The same passage further substitutes it for Tirzah. It seems to have been located as a fastness on some strong position. On this account, as well as be- cause of its coiniection with Mount Ephraim, it cannot be (as many think) the same with Zeredatha. Zerrnth, or Zart/ian, which lay in the Jordan valley, Lieut. Conder {Te7if Wo?-k in Palest, ii, 340) identifies it with Surdah. a village little more than a mile south of Jufna (Tristram, Bible Places, p. 110).