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ZI


ZIA

zi'-a (zia`, meaning uncertain): A Gadite, possibly the name of a Gadite clan (1 Ch 5:13).


ZIBA

zi'-ba (tsibha', tsibha' (2 Sam 16:4a), meaning unknown; Seiba): A former servant or probably dependent of Saul's house (2 Sam 9:1 ff), who was brought to David when the king inquired if there was not a member of Saul's family that he could show kindness to (compare David's oath to Jonathan in 1 Sam 20:14 ff). Ziba tells David of Mephibosheth (Meribbaal), Jonathan's son, who is thereupon taken to the king from Lodebar, East of the Jordan, and given Saul's estate. Ziba is also bidden to till the land and bring in its produce, and "it shall be food for thy master's son," according to Massoretic Text in 2 Sam 9:10b; but the Septuagint and Lucian have a better reading, "thy master's household." Mephibosheth himself is to eat at David's table. Ziba is to be assisted in this by his sons and servants; he had 15 sons and 20 servants (9:10).

When David has to leave Jerusalem at the time of Absalom's revolt, Ziba (2 Sam 16:1-4) takes two asses for members of the king's household to ride on, and 200 loaves and 100 clusters of raisins as provisions for the youths. When asked where Mephibosheth is, he accuses his master of remaining behind purposely in hopes that his father's kingdom would be restored to him. David then confers upon Ziba his master's estate.

After Absalom's death, David sets out to return to Jerusalem from Mahanaim, East of Jordan. Ziba with his sons and servants, as we are told in a parenthesis in 2 Sam 19:17,18a (Hebrew verses 18,19a), by means of a ferry-boat goes backward and forward over Jordan, and thus enables the king's household to cross. But he has wrongly accused his master of treacherous lukewarmness toward David, for Mephibosheth meets the king on his return journey to Jerusalem (2 Sam 19:24-30 (Hebrew verses 25-31)) with signs of grief. When he is asked why he had not joined the king at the time of the latter's flight, he answers that Ziba deceived him, "for thy servant said to him, Saddle me (so read in 2 Sam 19:26 (Hebrew text, verse 27) with Septuagint and Syriac for Massoretic Text `I will have saddled me') the ass." He then accuses Ziba of falsehood, and David divides the estate between the two, although Mephibosheth is quite willing that Ziba should retain the whole of it.

David Francis Roberts


ZIBEON

zib'-e-on (tsibh`on, "hyena"; HPN, 95; Sebegon): A Horite chief (Gen 36:2,14,20,24,29; 1 Ch 1:38,40); he is called the "Hivite" in Gen 36:2 where "Horite" should be read with 36:20,29. In Gen 36:2,14 Anah is said to be "the daughter of Zibeon," whereas the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac, and Lucian have "the son of Zibeon"; compare 1 Ch 1:38,40, where also Anah is Zibeon's son.


ZIBIA

zib'-i-a (tsibhya', perhaps "gazelle"): A Benjamite (1 Ch 8:9).


ZIBIAH

zib'-i-a (tsibhyah, probably "gazelle"): A woman of Beersheba, mother of King Jehoash (Joash) of Judah (2 Ki 12:1 (Hebrew verse 2); 2 Ch 24:1. Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus have Abia).


ZICHRI

zik'-ri (zikhri, meaning uncertain):

(1) Levites: (a) grandson of Kohath (Ex 6:21, where some the King James Version editions read wrongly, "Zithri"); (b) an Asaphite (1 Ch 9:15), called "Zabdi" in Neh 11:17, where the Septuagint's Codex Alexandrinus has Zechri = Zichri, but the Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus other names; see ZABDI , (4); (c) a descendant of Eliezer (1 Ch 26:25).

(2) Benjamites: (a) 1 Ch 8:19; (b) 1 Ch 8:23; (c) 1 Ch 8:27; (d) Neh 11:9.

(3) Father of Eliezer, who was one of David's tribal princes (1 Ch 27:16).

(4) Father of Amasiah, "who willingly offered himself unto Yahweh" (2 Ch 17:16).

(5) Father of Elishaphat, a captain in Jehoiada's time (2 Ch 23:1).

(6) "A mighty man of Ephraim," who when fighting under Pekah slew the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah (2 Ch 28:7).

(7) A priest in the days of Joiakim (Neh 12:17); the section, Neh 12:14-21, is omitted by the Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus with the exception of "of Maluchi" (12:14); Lucian has Zacharias.

David Francis Roberts


ZID-KIJAH

zid-ki'-ja.

See ZEDEKIAH , 5.


ZIDDIM

zid'-im (ha-tsiddim; Codex Vaticanus ton Turion; Codex Alexandrinus omits): A fortified city in Naphtali (Josh 19:35), probably represented by the modern Chattin, about 5 miles Northwest of Tiberias, in the opening of the gorge that breaks down seaward North of Qurun Chattin, the traditional Mount of Beatitudes.


ZIDON; ZIDONIANS

zi'-don, zi-do'-ni-anz.

See SIDON ,SIDONIANS .


ZIF

zif.

See ZIV .


ZIHA

zi'-ha (tsicha', tsicha' (Neh 7:46), meaning unknown): An overseer of Nethinim (Neh 11:21) who are called (Ezr 2:43; Neh 7:46) "the children (or sons) of Ziha." The Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus and Alexandrinus omit Neh 11:20 f; the Septuagint has Sial, Lucian Siaau; in Neh 7:46; the Septuagint Codex Vaticanus Sea; Codex Alexandrinus has Oiaa; Lucian has Soulai; in Ezr 2:43 the Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus has Southia; Codex Alexandrinus has Souaa; Lucian has Souddaei.


ZIKLAG

zik'-lag (tsiqelagh, tsiqelagh (2 Sam 1:1), tsiqelagh (1 Ch 12:1,20); usually in the Septuagint Sekelak, or Sikelag): A town assigned (Josh 19:5; 1 Ch 4:30) to Simeon, but in Josh 15:31 named, between Hornah and Madmannah, as one of the cities of the Negeb of Judah, "toward the border of Edom." It is said (1 Sam 27:6) to have remained a royal city. In Neh 11:28 it is in the list of towns reinhabited by the returning children of Judah. Its chief associations are with David. Achish the Philistine king of Gath gave it to David as a residence (1 Sam 27:6 f; 1 Ch 12:1,20); it was raided by the Amalekites, on whom David took vengeance and so recovered his property (1 Sam 30:14,26); here the messenger who came to announce Saul's death was slain (2 Sam 1:1; 4:10).

The site of this important place is not yet fixed with certainty; Conder proposed Zucheilika, a ruin 11 miles South-Southeast of Gaza, and 4 miles North of Wady es-Sheri'a, which may be the "Brook Besor" (1 Sam 30:9,10,21); Rowland (1842) proposed `Asluj, a heap of ruins South of Beersheba and 7 miles to the East of Bered. Neither site is entirely satisfactory. See Williams, Holy City, I, 463-68;BR ,II , 201,PEF , 288, ShXX .

E. W. G. Masterman


ZILLAH

zil'-a (tsillah; Sella): One of Lamech's wives (Gen 4:19,22,23). The name is perhaps connected with tsel, "shadow."


ZILLETHAI

zil'-e-thi, zil-e'-tha-i (tsillethay, meaning uncertain; the King James Version Zilthai):

(1) A Benjamite (1 Ch 8:20).

(2) A Manassite who joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch 12:20 (Hebrew verse 21)).


ZILPAH

zil'-pa (zilpah, meaning uncertain; Zelpha): The ancestress of Gad and Asher (Gen 30:10,12; 35:26; 46:18), a slave girl of Leah's, given her by Laban (Gen 29:24; 30:9). In Ezek 48 the Zilpah tribes have the 5th division toward the South of Palestine and the 6th to the North, a slightly more favorable position than that of the Bilhah tribes.


ZILTHAI

zil'-thi, zil'-tha-i.

See ZILLETHAI .


ZIMMAH

zim'-a (zimmah, perhaps "device," "plan"): A Gershonite Levite (1 Ch 6:20 (Hebrew, verse 5); also in 6:42 (Hebrew verse 27); 2 Ch 29:12). See Curtis, Chronicles, 130, 134 ff.


ZIMRAN

zim'-ran (zimran, from zemer, "wild sheep" or "wild goat," the ending -an being gentilic; Skinner, Genesis, 350): Son of Abraham and Keturah (Gen 25:2; 1 Ch 1:32). The various manuscripts of the Septuagint give the name in different forms, e.g. in Gen A, Zebran; Codex Sinaiticus Zemran; Codex Alexandrinus(1) Zembram; D(sil) Zombran; and Lucian Zemran; in Chronicles, Codex Vaticanus has Zembran, Codex Alexandrinus Zemran, Lucian Zemran (compare Brooke and McLean's edition of the Septuagint for Genesis).

Hence, some have connected the name with Zabram of Ptol. vi.7,5, West of Mecca; others with the Zamareni of Pliny (Ant. vi.158) in the interior of Arabia; but according to Skinner and E. Meyer (see Gunkel, Gen3, 261) these would be too far south. Curtis (Chronicles, 72) says the name is probably to be identified with the "Zimri" of Jer 25:25. It would then be the name of a clan, with the mountain sheep or goat as its totem.

See TOTEMISM .

David Francis Roberts


ZIMRI (1)

zim'-ri (zimri, "wild sheep" or "wild goat"; in 1 Maccabees, with the King James Version, has Zambri; Codex Sinaiticus has Zambrei):

(1) A Simeonite prince (Nu 25:14; 1 Macc 2:26), slain by Phinehas, Aaron's grandson. Nu 25:1-5 records how the Israelites, while they were at Shittim, began to consort with Moabite women and "they (i.e. the Moabite women) called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods" (25:2), i.e. as explained by 25:5 to take part in the immoral rites of the god Baal-peor. Moses is bidden to have the offenders punished. The next paragraph (25:6-9) relates how the people engage in public mourning; but while they do this Zimri brings in among his brethren a Midianitess. Phinehas sees this and goes after Zimri into the qubbah, where he slays the two together, and thus the plague is stayed (25:6-9).

The connection between these two paragraphs is difficult; Moabite women are mentioned in the first, a Midianitess in the second; the plague of Nu 25:8 f is not previously referred to, although it seems clear that the plague is the cause of the weeping in 25:6. The sequel, 25:16-18, makes the second paragraph have something to do with Baal-peor. Critics assign 25:1-5 to J-E, 25:6-18 to P.

It seems, however, that the two accounts refer to similar circumstances. This is evident if the meaning of qubbah in Nu 25:8 be as the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) renders it, lupinar, "a house of ill-repute." The difficulty is that the word only occurs here in the Old Testament, but it has that meaning in New Heb (see Gray, Nu, 385;BDB , however, translates it "a large vaulted tent." While one narrative says the women were Moabitesses and the other Midianitesses, the latter section presupposes something like the account in the former; and the point is that Zimri, at the very time that the rest of the people publicly mourned because of a plague that was due to their own dealings with foreign women, brought a Midianite woman among the people, possibly to be his wife, for he was a prince or chief, and she was the daughter of a Midianite chief. It may be urged that if this be the case, there was nothing wrong in it; but according to Hebrew ideas there was, and we only need to remember the evil influence of such marriages as those entered into by Solomon, or especially that of Ahab with Jezebel, to see at any rate a Hebrew justification for Zimri's death.

Numbers 31 describes the extermination of the Midianites at the bidding of Moses. All the males are slain by the Israelites (31:7), but the women are spared. Moses is angry at this: "Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh" (31:15 f). Here we find, although the chapter is a Midrash (see Gray, Numbers, 417 ff), that the Hebrews themselves connected the two events of Numbers 25, but in addition the name of Balaam is also introduced, as again in 31:8, where he is said to have been slain along with the kings of Midian. See further Dt 4:3, and Driver's note on the verse.

See BAAL-PEOR ;BALAAM ;PEOR .

(2) A king of Israel (1 Ki 16:8-20). See special article.

(3) A Judahite "son" of Zerah (1 Ch 2:6) = "Zabdi" of Josh 7:1,17 f.

See ZABDI , (1).

(4) A Benjamite, descendant of King Saul (1 Ch 8:36; 9:42).

(5) In Jer 25:25, where "all the kings of Zimri" are mentioned along with those of Arabia (25:24) and Elam and the Medes. The name is as yet unidentified, although thought to be that of a people called ZIMRAN (which see) in Gen 25:2.

David Francis Roberts


ZIMRI (2)

(zimri; Septuagint Zambrei, Zambri): The 5th king of Israel, but who occupied the throne only seven days (1 Ki 16:9-20). Zimri had been captain of half the chariots under Elah, and, as it seems, made use of his position to conspire against his master. The occasion for his crime was furnished by the absence of the army, which, under the direction of Omri, was engaged in the siege of the Philistine town Gibbethon. While Elah was in a drunken debauch in the house of his steward Arza, who may have been an accomplice in the plot, he was foully murdered by Zimri, who ascended the throne and put the remnant of Elah's family to death, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jehu concerning the house of Baasha. However, the conspiracy lacked the support of the people, for word of the crime no sooner reached Gibbethon, than the army raised Omri to the throne of Israel. Omri at once hastened to Tirzah and captured the place, which as it seems offered little resistance. Zimri resolved to die as king, and accordingly set fire to the palace with his own hands, and perished in the flames that he had kindled. Thus came to an ignominious end the short reign which remained as a blot even upon the blood-stained record of the deeds of violence that ushered in the change of dynasties in the Northern Kingdom, for the foul crime was abhorred even among arch plotters. When Jehu entered Jezreel he was met with Jezebel's bitter taunt, "Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master's murderer?" (2 Ki 9:31). The historian too, in the closing formula of the reign, specially mentions "his treason that he worked."

S. K. Mosiman


ZIN

zin (tsin; Sin):

(1) A town in the extreme South of Judah, on the line separating that province from Edom, named between the ascent of Akrabbim and Kadesh-barnea (Nu 34:4; Josh 15:3). It must have lain somewhere between Wady el-Fiqra (the ascent of Akrabbim?) and `Ain Qadis (Kadesh-barnea); but the site has not been recovered.

(2) The Wilderness of Zin is the tract deriving its name from the town (Nu 34:3). It is identified with the wilderness of Kadesh in Nu 33:36; while in other places Kadesh is said to be in the wilderness of Zin (Nu 20:1; 27:14; Dt 32:51). We may take it that the two names refer to the same region. The spies, who set out from Kadesh-barnea, explored the land from the wilderness of Zin northward (Nu 13:21; compare 32:8). It bordered with Judah "at the uttermost part of the south" (Josh 15:1). In this wilderness Moses committed the offense which cost him his hope of entering the promised land (Nu 27:14; Dt 32:51). It is identical with the uplands lying to the North and Northwest of the wilderness of Paran, now occupied by the `Azazimeh Arabs.

W. Ewing


ZINA

zi'-na.

See ZIZAH .


ZION

zi'-on (tsiyon; Sion):

1. Meaning of the Word

2. The Zion of the Jebusites

3. Zion of the Prophets

4. Zion in Later Poetical Writings and Apocrypha

5. Omission of Name by Some Writers

6. The Name "Zion" in Christian Times

LITERATURE

1. Meaning of the Word:

A name applied to Jerusalem, or to certain parts of it, at least since the time of David. Nothing certain is known of the meaning. Gesenius and others have derived it from a Hebrew root tsahah, "to be dry"; Delitzsch from tsiwwah, "to set up" and Wetzstein from tsin, "to protect." Gesenius finds a more hopeful suggestion in the Arabic equivalent cihw, the Arabic cahwat signifying "ridge of a mountain" or "citadel," which at any rate suitably applies to what we know to have been the original Zion (compare Smith,HGHL , under the word).

Considerable confusion has been caused in the past by the want of clear understanding regarding the different sites which have respectively been called "Zion" during the centuries. It will make matters clearer if we take the application of the name: in David's time; in the early Prophets, etc.; in late poetical writings and in the Apocrypha; and in Christian times.

2. The Zion of the Jebusites:

Jerus (in the form Uru-sa-lim) is the oldest name we know for this city; it goes back at least 400 years before David. In 2 Sam 5:6-9, "The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites. .... Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David .... And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David." It is evident that Zion was the name of the citadel of the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. That this citadel and incidentally then city of Jerusalem around it were on the long ridge running South of the Temple (called the southeastern hill in the article JERUSALEM, III, (3) (which see)) is now accepted by almost all modern scholars, mainly on the following grounds:

(1) The near proximity of the site to the only known spring, now the "Virgin's Fount," once called GIHON (which see). From our knowledge of other ancient sites all over Palestine, as well as on grounds of common-sense, it is hardly possible to believe that the early inhabitants of this site with such an abundant source at their very doors could have made any other spot their headquarters.

(2) The suitability of the site for defense.--The sites suited for settlement in early Canaanite times were all, if we may judge from a number of them now known, of this nature--a rocky spur isolated on three sides by steep valleys, and, in many sites, protected at the end where they join the main mountain ridge by either a valley or a rocky spur.

(3) The size of the ridge, though very small to our modern ideas, is far more in keeping with what we know of fortified towns of that period than such an area as presented by the southwestern hill--the traditional site of Zion. Mr. Macalister found by actual excavation that the great walls of Gezer, which must have been contemporaneous with the Jebusite Jerusalem, measured approximately 4,500 feet in circumference. G. A. Smith has calculated that a line of wall carried along the known and inferred scarps around the edge of this southeastern hill would have an approximate circumference of 4,250 feet. The suitability of the site to a fortified city like Gezer, Megiddo, Soco, and other sites which have been excavated, strikes anyone familiar with these places.

(4) The archaeological remains on these hills found by Warren and Professor Guthe, and more particularly in the recent excavations of Captain Parker (see JERUSALEM ), show without doubt that this was the earliest settlement in pre-Israelite times. Extensive curves and rock-cuttings, cave-dwellings and tombs, and enormous quantities of early "Amorite" (what may be popularly called "Jebusite") pottery show that the spot must have been inhabited many centuries before the time of David. The reverse is equally true; on no other part of the Jerusalem site has any quantity of such early pottery been found.

(5) The Bible evidence that Zion originally occupied this site is clear. It will be found more in detail under the heading "City of David" in the article JERUSALEM, IV, (5), but three points may be mentioned here: (a) The Ark of the Covenant was brought up out of the city of David to the Temple (1 Ki 8:1; 2 Ch 5:2), and Pharaoh's daughter "came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her"--adjacent to the Temple (1 Ki 9:24). This expression "up" could not be used of any other hill than of the lower-lying eastern ridge; to go from the southwestern hill (traditional Zion) to the Temple is to go down. (b) Hezekiah constructed the well-known Siloam tunnel from Gihon to the Pool of Siloam. He is described (2 Ch 32:30) as bringing the waters of Gihon "straight down on the west side of the city of David." (c) Manasseh (2 Ch 33:14) built "an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley" (i.e. nachal--the name of the Kedron valley).

3. Zion of the Prophets:

Zion, renamed the City of David, then originally was on this eastern ridge. But the name did not stay there. It would almost seem as if the name was extended to the Temple site when the ark was carried there, for in the pre-exilic Prophets the references to Zion all appear to have referred to the Temple Hill. To quote a few examples: "And Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night" (Isa 4:5); "Yahweh of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion" (Isa 8:18); "Let us go up to Zion unto Yahweh our God" (Jer 31:6); "Yahweh will reign over them in mount Zion" (Mic 4:7). All these, and numbers more, clearly show that at that time Zion was the Temple Hill.

4. Zion in Later Poetical Writings and Apocrypha:

In many of the later writings, particularly poetical references, Zion appears to be the equivalent of Jerusalem; either in parallelism (Ps 102:21; Am 1:2; Mic 3:10,12; Zec 1:14,17; 8:3; Zeph 3:16) or alone (Jer 3:14; Lam 5:11); even here many of the references will do equally well for the Temple Hill. The term "Daughter of zion" is applied to the captive Jews (Lam 4:22), but in other references to the people of Jerusalem (Isa 1:8; 52:2; Jer 4:31, etc.). When we come to the Apocrypha, in 2 Esdras there are several references in which Zion is used for the captive people of Judah (2:40; 3:2,31; 10:20,39,44), but "Mount Zion" in this and other books (e.g. 1 Macc 4:37,60; 5:54; 6:48,62, etc.) is always the Temple Hill.

5. Omission of Name by Some Writers:

It has been pointed out as a curious and unaccountable exception that in Ezekiel as well as in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, there is no mention of Zion, except the incidental reference to David's capture of the Jebusite fort. The references in the other Prophets and the Psalms are so copious that there must be some religious reason for this. The Chronicler (2 Ch 3:1), too, alone refers to the Temple as on Mount Moriah. It is also noticeable that only in these books (2 Ch 27:3; 33:14; Neh 3:26 f; 11:21) does the name "Ophel" appear as a designation of a part of the southeastern hill, which apparently might equally fitly have been termed Zion. See OPHEL . Josephus never uses the name "Zion" nor does it occur in the New Testament, except in two quotations (Heb 12:22; Rev 14:1).

6. The Name "Zion" in Christian Times:

Among the earlier Christian writers who mention "Zion," Origen used it as equivalent to the Temple Hill, but in the 4th century writers commence to localize it up the southern part of the western hill. It was a period when Biblical topography was settled in a very arbitrary manner, without any scientific or critical examination of the evidence, and this tradition once established remained, like many such traditions, undisputed until very recent years. To W. F. Birch belongs much of the credit for the promulgation of the newer views which now receive the adherence of almost every living authority on the topography of Jerusalem.

LITERATURE.

See especially chapter vi in Smith's Jerusalem; for a defense of the older view see Kuemmel, Materialien z. Topog. des alt. Jerusalem.

E. W. G. Masterman


ZIOR

zi'-or (tsi`or; Sorth, or Sior): A town in the hill country of Judah (Josh 15:54); probably Si'air, 4 1/2 miles North-Northeast of Hebron where the Mukam `Aisa (Tomb of Esau) is now shown. It is a considerable village surrounded by cultivated land; a spring exists in the neighborhood; there are rock-cut tombs showing it is an ancient site (PEF, III, 309, Sh XXI).


ZIPH (1)

zif (ziph; Ozeib, or Ziph):

(1) A town in the hill country of Judah, mentioned along with Maon, Carmel and Jutah (Josh 15:55). It is chiefly celebrated in connection with the earlier history of David: "David .... remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of Ziph" (1 Sam 23:14,15,24; 26:2); the Ziphites (1 Sam 23:19; 26:1; compare Ps 54 title) sought to betray him to Saul, but David escaped. Ziph was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Ch 11:8). The name also occurs in 1 Ch 2:42; 4:16. In connection with this last (compare 4:23) it is noticeable that Ziph is one of the four names occurring on the Hebrew stamped jar handles with the added la-melekh, "to the king."

The site is Tell Zif, 4 miles Southeast of Hebron, conspicuous hill 2,882 ft. above sea-level; there are cisterns and, to the East, some ruins (PEF, III, 312, 315).

(2) A town in the Negeb of Judah (Josh 15:24), site unknown.

E. W. G. Masterman


ZIPH (2)

(ziph, meaning unknown):

(1) A grandson of Caleb (1 Ch 2:42); the Septuagint has Zeiph.

(2) A son of Jehallelel (1 Ch 4:16). In the Septuagint's Codex Alexandrinus reads Ziphai, but Codex Vaticanus has the totally different form Ameachei.


ZIPHAH

zi'-fa (ziphah, a feminine form of "Ziph"): A Judahite, "son" of Jehallelel. The name being feminine may be a dittography of the previous Ziph (1 Ch 4:16).


ZIPHIMS

zif'-imz: In title of Ps 54 the King James Version for the Revised Version (British and American) ZIPHITES (which see).


ZIPHION

zif'-i-on (tsiphyon, "gaze" (?) (BDB)): A "son" of Gad (Gen 46:16) = "Zephon" of Nu 26:15.

See ZAPHON ;ZEPHONITES .


ZIPHITES

zif'-its.

See ZIPH .


ZIPHRON

zif'-ron.

See SIBRAIM .


ZIPPOR

zip'-or (tsippor; in Nu 22:4; 23:18; tsippor, "bird," "swallow" (HPN, 94)): Father of Balak, king of Moab (Nu 22:2,10,16; Josh 24:9; Jdg 11:25).


ZIPPORAH

zi-po'-ra, zip'-o-ra (tsipporah; Sepphora): The Midianite wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro, also called Hobab, and probably grand-daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian at the time Moses fled from Egypt, later succeeded at his death by Jethro, or Hobab (Ex 2:21,22; 4:25,26; 18:2-6).

Whether or not Zipporah was the "Cushite woman" (Nu 12:1) is a much-mooted question. There is little ground for anything more than speculation on the subject. The use of the words, "Cushite woman" in the mouth of Aaron and Miriam may have been merely a description of Zipporah and intended to be opprobrious, or they may have been ethnic in character and intended to denote another woman whom Moses had married, as suggested by Ewald (Gesch. des Volkes Israel, II, 252). The former view seems the more probable. The association of Midian and Cushan by Habakkuk (3:7) more than 700 years afterward may hardly be adduced to prove like close relationship between these peoples in the days of Moses.

M. G. Kyle


ZITHRI

zith'-ri.

See SITHRI .


ZIV

ziv (ziw; the King James Version Zif): The 2nd month of the old Hebrew calendar, corresponding to Iyyar of the Jewish reckoning in later times. It is mentioned in 1 Ki 6:1,37.

See CALENDAR .


ZIZ, ASCENT OF

ziz (ma`aleh ha-tsits; Hasae, Hasisa): A pass in the wilderness of Judea (2 Ch 20:16) leading from Hazazon-tamar (En-gedi, 2 Ch 20:2). This is generally identified with Wady Chacaca, a valley by which the ancient road from En-gedi runs toward Jerusalem. At any rate, an echo of the ancient name survives here: possibly the actual ascent was the present steep pass from En-gedi to the plateau above. See PEF , ShXXI .


ZIZA

zi'-za (ziza', probably a childish reduplicated abbreviation or a term of endearment (Curtis, Chron., 369, quoting Noldeke in EB, III 3294)):

(1) A Simeonite chief (1 Ch 4:37).

(2) A son of King Rehoboam, his mother being a daughter or grand-daughter of Absalom (2 Ch 11:20).

(3) A probable reading for ZIZAH (which see).


ZIZAH

zi'-za (zizah; see ZIZA ):A Gershonite Levite (1 Ch 23:11); in verse 10 the name is "Zina" (zina'), while the Septuagint and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) have "Ziza" (Ziza) in both verses, and one Hebrew manuscript has ziza' in 1 Ch 23:10. We should then probably read ziza' in both verses, i.e. "Ziza."



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