Biblical Encyclopedia: Z

Zaanan Sennaar

(rich in flocks; Mic. 1:11)—a town of Judah addressed in Micah’s lament over the towns of the Shephelah. The source interprets the oracle as divine judgment upon the shameless conduct of its inhabitants.

Zaanannim

(journeying; Josh. 19:33; Judg. 4:11)—an oak or oak grove near Kedesh on Naphtali’s boundary. Heber the Kenite pitched his tent nearby, and there Jael killed Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army. The source reports that the district was still wooded in its own day.

Zaavan

(terror) (Gen. 36:27; 1 Chron. 1:42) — son of Ezer and grandson of Seir, one of the chieftains or elders of the Horites in the land of Edom.

Zabad

(God has given him — a gift) — name of seven men:

Zabadaeus.

See 2 Esdras 9:35. Cf. Zabad (e).

Zabbai

(wanderer, vagrant) — name of two men:

Zabbi.

(See 2 Esdras 9:28) — an Israelite married to a foreign wife in the days of Ezra. In Ezra (10:27) this reads: Zabbai.

Zabbi.

See 2 Esdras 8:32 — his sons are listed among those who came up from Babylon with Ezra.

Zabbud Zabud

(gift) (Ezra 8:14) — son of Bigvai, who, together with his brother Uthai and seventy males, accompanied the high priest Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem under Artaxerxes. In 2 Esdras (8:40) this name is changed to Istalcurus — evidently a corrupted reading.

Zabdeans

(1 Macc. 12:31) — an Arab tribe, defeated and plundered by Jonathan on his way back to Damascus from his unsuccessful campaign against Demetrius. Josephus calls this tribe the Nabateans, but this is evidently a mistake (Antiquities 13:5:10 [as given]). Nothing certain is known of this tribe.

Zabdi

(gift of God) — name of four men:

Zabdiel

(gift of God) — name of three persons:

Zabud

(given, granted) (1 Kings 4:5) — son of Nathan the priest, friend of King Solomon, who held as prominent a place at Solomon’s court as Hushai had held at David’s. In the Syriac Peshitta translation and in some Hebrew manuscripts, in place of Zabud this reads: Zaccur.

Zaccai Zacchu

(pure) (Ezra 2:9; Neh. 7:14) — ancestor of a numerous family, called the sons of Zaccai, 760 of whom accompanied Zerubbabel from the land of captivity to Jerusalem.

Zacchaeus

(the same as Zaccai — pure) — name of two persons:

Zaccur and Zachur

(remembrance) — name of six persons:

Zadok

(righteous)—the name of several persons: (1) (2 Sam. 8:17) son of Ahitub and high priest in the days of David and Solomon. First Chronicles 24:3 places him in the line of Eleazar. In his youth he distinguished himself for courage and joined David at Hebron with twenty-two leaders of his father’s house and many warriors. During Absalom’s revolt Zadok and Abiathar wished to follow David from Jerusalem with the Ark, but at the king’s request they returned and awaited the outcome. When Adonijah later attempted to seize David’s throne, Abiathar supported him, but Zadok remained faithful and took the leading priestly part in securing Solomon’s succession. Zadok anointed Solomon at Gihon, and after Abiathar’s removal remained sole high priest (1 Kings 1:8–39).

Zagam

(stench, foul odor) (2 Chron. 11:19) — of the sons of Rehoboam, king of Judah, by his wife Abihail, a descendant of the granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Eliab, son of Jesse.

Zair Sior

(small, young; 2 Kings 8:21)—a place near the border of Judah and Edom through which King Joram passed during his campaign against the Edomites. Its location and even the reading of the name are uncertain.

Zakur

(remembrance) (1 Chron. 4:26) — of the family of Mishma, of the tribe of Simeon.

Zalaph Seleph

(Neh. 3:30)—father of Hanun, who helped repair the wall of Jerusalem.

Zalmon

(shady) (Judg. 9:48; Ps. 68:14)—a wooded hill near Shechem, so densely shaded and snow-covered at its summit that it could be called a dark, shady mountain or, in the Psalmist’s words, white as snow. After taking Shechem, Abimelech cut branches there, piled them around the tower in which the people had taken refuge, and burned the tower with all the men and women inside.

Zalmon

(2 Sam. 23:28)—an Ahohite among David’s mighty warriors. The parallel list reads Ilai (1 Chron. 11:29).

Zalmunna

(deprived of protection) (Judg. 8:5)—a Midianite king who, with Zebah, was pursued and captured by Gideon and afterward put to death by him.

Zamri.

(See 2 Esdras 9:34) — likewise married to a foreign wife. In Ezra (10:42) this reads: Amariah.

Zamzummim Zochommin

(a word of very obscure meaning; perhaps: people undertaking counsel, and hence — a noisy, tumultuous people) (Deut. 2:20). A people under this name is mentioned only in the cited passage. It appears they were one and the same as the Rephaim, and dwelt in the land afterward occupied by the Ammonites, who gave it the name Zamzummim. This people is sometimes confused with the Zuzim (Gen. 14:5), but such an identification seems to be incorrect. The Zamzummim were a strong and numerous people, occupying, until their destruction by the Ammonites, the eastern part of the land from the river Jordan and the Dead Sea.

Zanoah and Zanoach

(foul-smelling, perhaps: a marshy place):

Zaphenath-paneah Psonthomphanech

(Gen. 41:45)—the Egyptian name Pharaoh gave Joseph after Joseph interpreted his dreams and advised him concerning the coming seven-year famine. The source offers the traditional meanings “savior of the world,” “savior of life,” or “revealer of secrets.” The Egyptian etymology remains disputed, so none of these should be treated as certain.

Zaphon Soccotha Saphan

(Judg. 12:1; Josh. 13:27)—a city east of the Jordan, probably south of the Sea of Galilee, in the territory assigned to Gad. After Jephthah’s victory over the Ammonites, the Ephraimites assembled against him there, complaining that he had gone to battle without them and threatening to burn his house. Civil war followed, and forty-two thousand Ephraimites were slain (Judg. 12:1–6).

Zaphon Soccotha Saphan

(north, dark region; Josh. 13:27)—a town in the territory of Gad, in the valley east of the Jordan, within the remnant of Sihon’s kingdom. The source identifies it with a place near Succoth in the Wadi Ajlun; the exact location is uncertain.

Zarephath

(Luke 4:26; 1 Kings 17:9)—a Gentile city of Phoenicia on the Mediterranean coast between Tyre and Sidon, belonging to the latter and therefore called Zarephath of Sidon. Elijah stayed there with a poor widow during the drought, an account to which the Lord Jesus refers in Luke. Obadiah 20 also names the city. Once flourishing, it was known for copper and iron works. During the Crusades it was fortified and became the seat of a Latin bishop dependent upon the archbishop of Tyre. The Crusaders built a chapel at the traditional site of the widow’s house, later a mosque. The village of Sarafand occupied the ancient site inland from the shore; Phoenician tombs south of it bore images of palms, the sun, and the moon.

Zareth-shahar

(splendor of the dawn; Josh. 13:19)—a town of Reuben, probably near Mount Nebo or Pisgah southwest of Heshbon.

Zarethan

—(1) a place near Adam on the Jordan. When Israel crossed opposite Jericho, the waters coming from above stood in a heap far away at Adam, beside Zarethan, while the people crossed on dry ground (Josh. 3:16). Second Chronicles 4:17 gives the related form Zeredah. (2) A place in Manasseh near Beth-shean below Jezreel (1 Kings 4:12). The source distinguishes a southern Ephraimite Zarethan/Zeredah from a northern Manassite Zarethan/Zererah; modern identifications remain debated.

Zattu

(branch, sprout) (Ezra 2:8; Neh. 7:13) — a person whose descendants, 945 in number, returned from Babylon to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel. In the book of Nehemiah the number of those who returned is given as almost a hundred fewer. Some of the family of Zattu, by Ezra’s order, had to dissolve marriages they had contracted with foreign wives during the captivity (Ezra 10:27).

Zattu

— three Israelites in the days of Ezra:

Zattu.

See 2 Esdras 5:12. In Ezra (2:8) this reads Zattu, and in Nehemiah (8:3 [as given]), Zattu. His sons are listed among those who returned from captivity with Zerubbabel.

Zavdai.

See 2 Esdras 9:21 — of the priests in the days of Ezra. In Ezra (10:20) this reads: Zebadiah.

Zaza Hozam

(abundance) (1 Chron. 2:33) — one of the sons of Jonathan, named in the genealogical lists of 1 Chronicles among the descendants of Jerahmeel, of the tribe of Judah.

Zealot

(2ealous one) (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13) — a surname given to one of the twelve apostles, Simon, to distinguish him from the other apostle, Simon Peter. In the Evangelists Matthew (10:4) and Mark (3:18) he is called the Cananaean, which in Hebrew has the same meaning as the Greek word “Zealot.” The surname “Zealots” in its origin was probably not the name of a sect that later became notorious for its fanaticism, and could be applied to anyone distinguished by especially pious and reasonable zeal for God and the faith, and in its pure sense contained nothing reprehensible.

The Lord God Himself calls Himself jealous [zealous] (Exod. 20:5; Ps. 69:9 [68:10]; John 2:17). But in more recent times, from the time of the census under Quirinius, there appeared among the Jews such zealots as carried their zeal far beyond the bounds of true zeal. “They have a zeal for God,” the Apostle Paul testifies of them, “but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2). Whereas true zealots, such as, for example, in the early days of the Maccabees, were especially concerned only with preserving the true faith and purifying themselves from pagan defilements (1 Macc. ch. 2, and elsewhere), these latter — self-styled and extreme zealots and fanatics — were jealous for outward freedom, preached that the people ought not to pay tribute to Caesar, acknowledged the dominion of God alone over themselves, and thus stirred up riots and rebellions among the people, and even persecuted and killed those who taught differently from them and opposed them (Acts ch. 6, 7).

The Zealots were, one may say, chiefly responsible for all the subsequent rebellions and uprisings of the Jews against the Romans, and for all the calamities that ultimately overwhelmed the political life of that people. Those Galileans mentioned by the holy Evangelist Luke (13:1), whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, are thought to have belonged to the sect of the Zealots. To these same zealots, it seems, must be assigned the murderers of the holy protomartyr Stephen as well (Acts ch. 6, 7).

Zebadiah

(gift of the LORD) (1 Chron. 27:7) — son of Asahel, brother of Joab, nephew of the latter.

Zebadiah

(gift of the LORD) — name of the following persons:

Zebah

(sacrifice) (Judg. 8:5; Ps. 83:12 [82:12]) — one of the princes of Midian who invaded the land of Canaan, and who was afterward taken captive by Gideon and put to death.

Zebedee

(gift of God) (Matt. 4:21; 10:2) — a Galilean fisherman, father of the apostles James and John. His wife was named Salome (Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40). They lived on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, probably at Bethsaida. From the mention in the Gospel of his hired servants (Mark 1:20), and from his son’s acquaintance with the high priest Annas (John 18:15), it may be supposed that the family of Zebedee was one of some means (cf. John 19:27), though it lived by manual labor. The name Zebedee appears in the Gospel narrative only once, namely in the Evangelists Matthew (4:21, 22) and Mark (1:19, 20), where he is depicted with his sons, sitting in the boat and mending their nets.

At the Savior’s first word, Zebedee allowed both his sons to follow the Lord, although he himself, it seems, was not a disciple of the Lord. This readiness of his to let his sons James and John go so quickly after the Savior, however, gives grounds to think that either through the preaching of John the Baptist, or for some other reason, he, like Simeon the God-receiver, belonged to the number of those who awaited the consolation of Israel. Nothing is known of Zebedee’s later life, though it is thought he died before the Lord’s Passion. Concerning Zebedee’s wife, see under the word Salome.

Zebina Zebennas Jadai

(acquired, purchased) (Ezra 10:43) — one of the Israelites married to a foreign wife. In 2 Esdras (9:35) this name is omitted.

Zeboiim Seboim

(Deut. 29:23; Hos. 11:8)—a city of uncertain location in the Jordan Valley, apparently occupied by Canaanites (Gen. 10:19). Its king is named with the others defeated by the four allied kings (Gen. 14:2–8). Zeboiim was destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah and is afterward mentioned only in connection with that event. It must not be confused with Zeboim in 1 Samuel 13:18 and Nehemiah 11:34; the places differ in spelling, location, and setting.

Zeboim Sabim

(dyed, variegated; hence, in the source’s etymology, a place of hyenas or wild beasts; 1 Sam. 13:18; Neh. 11:34)—a valley southeast of Michmash, toward the wilderness of Judah or the Jordan Valley.

Zebudah

(given) (2 Kings 23:36) — daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah and mother of King Jehoiakim, wife of Josiah, king of Judah.

Zebul

(dwelling place, habitation) (Judg. 9:28, 41) — ruler of the city of Shechem, under Abimelech, son of Gideon. During Abimelech’s absence, Gaal son of Ebed formed a conspiracy to transfer power to Hamor, father of Shechem. Zebul, having sent Abimelech secret word of this and having advised him to make a feigned attack on the city, then began to taunt Gaal with cowardice, and so forced him to come out and give battle to Abimelech, while he himself meanwhile ordered the gates shut and would not let him back into the city.

Zebulun

(Gen. 30:19, 20) (dwelling place, abode) — sixth and last son of Jacob by Leah, who named him thus at his birth, saying, “Now will my husband dwell with me.” He had three sons (Gen. 46:14). The inheritance of his descendants in the Promised Land was prophetically foretold by his father in these words: “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon” (Gen. 49:13). Indeed, part of the coast afterward belonged to Zebulun, and he possessed a harbor.

The prophet Moses, in blessing the sons of Israel, said of Zebulun: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand” (Deut. 33:18–19). These prophecies were fulfilled in the days of Joshua. Zebulun took the best part of the land in the north of Palestine (Josh. 19:10, 16).

Zechariah

(remembered by the LORD) — the name of many persons mentioned in the Bible, namely:

Zechenyah.

(2 Esdras 8:32) — son of Jezelus, of the Israelites. In Ezra (8:5) this reads: Shechaniah.

Zecher Zacchur Makeloth

(remembrance) (1 Chron. 8:31) — one of the sons of Jehiel, father of the Gibeonites, ancestor of Saul. In 1 Chronicles (9:37) he is called Zechariah.

Zechorah

(2 Chron. 36:5) — mother of King Jehoiakim of Judah. (See Zebudah.)

Zechri.

(2 Esdras 8:1) — one of Ezra’s ancestors. In the parallel passage (Ezra 8:1) this reads: Azariah.

Zedad

(side or slope of a mountain; Num. 34:8; Ezek. 47:15)—a point on the northern boundary of Canaan. The source identifies it with Sadad between Homs and Palmyra, not far from Riblah; this remains a common but not certain identification.

Zedekiah

(the LORD is righteousness)—the name of six persons. (1) (2 Kings 24:17–18 and elsewhere) son of Josiah and last king of Judah. His original name was Mattaniah, but Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah. He began to reign at twenty-one and ruled eleven years (2 Chron. 36:11). Scripture portrays him as wicked and impious, while the people in his reign were especially marked by godlessness. At God’s command Jeremiah warned Zedekiah of severe judgment. Zedekiah joined the alliance of neighboring kingdoms and made a separate covenant with the king of Egypt; the Babylonian king therefore marched into Judah and captured its fortified places apart from Lachish and Azekah. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the ninth day of the fourth month, Jerusalem fell after a sixteen-month siege attended by the horrors of famine.

Zela

(rib, side; Josh. 18:28; 2 Sam. 21:14)—a town in Benjamin. David buried there the bones of Saul and Jonathan, together with the remains of Saul’s descendants whom the Gibeonites had executed, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish.

Zelek

(cleft, fissure; 2 Sam. 23:37; 1 Chron. 11:39)—an Ammonite among David’s mighty warriors.

Zelophehad

(Num. 26:33 and elsewhere)—son of Hepher of the tribe of Manasseh. He died in the wilderness without a male heir. His five daughters presented their claim to an inheritance before Moses; the LORD declared their plea just, and they received a portion among their father’s brothers. A general statute followed concerning inheritance where a man left no son. To prevent tribal land from passing to another tribe, the daughters married within their father’s clan (Num. 27:1–11; 36:10–12).

Zelzah

(shade from the sun; 1 Sam. 10:2)—a place in Benjamin near Rachel’s tomb. After anointing Saul, Samuel told him that he would meet two men there who would report that the lost donkeys had been found and that Saul’s father was now anxious about him.

Zemaraim

(two wooded heights)—(1) a town of Benjamin between Beth-arabah and Bethel (Josh. 18:22); (2) Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim, from which King Abijah of Judah addressed Jeroboam and the Israelites before battle (2 Chron. 13:4-20). The source repeats the Chronicler’s figure of 500,000 Israelite casualties.

Zemarite Samarean

(highland people; Gen. 10:18; 1 Chron. 1:16)—a Canaanite people descended from Canaan and associated with northern Palestine or the Phoenician coast.

Zenan Senna

(flock; Josh. 15:37)—a town in the lowland of Judah.

Zenas

(Titus 3:13) — one of the 70 apostles, a disciple and fellow worker of the Apostle Paul. From the citation given it appears that he was a lawyer, and later tradition says that he afterward became bishop in the city of Lydda, or Diospolis. His memory is kept on January 4 and September 27.

Zephaniah

—the name of several Israelites. (1) (2 Kings 25:18; Jer. 21:1; 29:25; 52:24–27) son of Maaseiah and the second priest in the reign of Zedekiah. He carried royal inquiries to Jeremiah, was denounced in a letter by the false prophet Shemaiah, and after Jerusalem’s fall was taken to Riblah and put to death by the king of Babylon. (2) (Zech. 6:10–14) father of Josiah, in whose house the returned exiles lodged and the symbolic crown was placed as a memorial.

Zephaniah

(protected by God)—(1) the source associates this name with the ancestry of a singer who served before the tabernacle until Solomon built the Temple, citing 1 Chronicles 6:36; the standard Hebrew text at that verse does not contain the name Zephaniah, so the identification or citation is uncertain. (2) The second-ranking priest at the Temple when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:18). Nebuzaradan took Zephaniah, the chief priest Seraiah, three keepers of the threshold, and other officials to Riblah, where the king of Babylon had them executed.

Zephaniah the Prophet

(Zeph. 1:1)—the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 BC), and traces his ancestry through Cushi, Gedaliah, Amariah, and Hezekiah. Because the genealogy is unusually extended, some have identified this Hezekiah with the king of Judah, but the text does not explicitly say so. Later traditions concerning Zephaniah’s tribe, birthplace, and burial are uncertain; the Eastern Church commemorates him on December 3.

Zephath Sepheth

(height; Judg. 1:17)—a Canaanite town. After Joshua’s death, Judah and Simeon defeated its inhabitants and devoted the city to destruction; it was therefore called Hormah.

Zepho

(watch, lookout; Gen. 36:11, 15; 1 Chron. 1:36)—a son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau.

Zephon (Ziphion)

(north, hidden region; Num. 26:15)—a son or clan of Gad. Genesis 46:16 gives the name Ziphion.

Zer Tyrians Tyre

(rock, cliff; Josh. 19:35)—one of the fortified towns allotted to Naphtali.

Zerachim

(2 Esdras 1:38) — brother of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, carried captive to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho. In the parallel passages (2 Chron. — [as given]; 2 Kings 23:30–34) this is read: Jehoahaz, and in the prophet Jeremiah (22:11): Shallum.

Zerah

(sun) — name of two persons:

Zerah

(rising of the sun) (2 Chron. 14:9) — king of Ethiopia, who invaded Judah in the reign of Asa with a thousand thousand warriors and three hundred chariots, but who, by the help of God, was defeated by Asa at Mareshah. By the name Zerah is generally understood Osorkon, king of Egypt of the 22nd, Bubastite, dynasty. That Zerah was a sovereign of Egypt is shown by the composition of his army, which consisted of Egyptians and Libyans and possessed a great many war chariots (2 Chron. 16:9 [as given]).

Zerah

(appearance of light) — name of five persons:

Zerahiah

— name of three persons, Israelites, in the days of Ezra: a) (5:8); b) (8:2); c) (8:31 [as given]). In the parallel passages these are read: in the first citation, Seraiah (Ezra 2:2) and Azariah (Neh. 7:7); in the second, (Ezra 7:4) Zechariah; and in the third, (Ezra 8:4) Zerahiah.

Zerahiah

(light of Jehovah) — name of two persons:

Zerahiah.

(See 2 Esdras 8:34) — of the Israelites who returned from Babylon with Ezra, son of Michael. In Ezra (8:8) this reads: Zebadiah.

Zeraiah. Saphatias Zaraias

(2 Esdras 9:28) — of the Israelites, sons of Zamoth. In Ezra (10:27) this reads: Aziza.

Zered

(abundance of willows, or luxuriant foliage of trees) (Num. 21:12; Deut. 2:13, 14) — a valley and brook, rising in the mountains of Abarim and flowing into the Dead Sea south of the Arnon, in the land of Moab — supposed to be the present Wadi el-Ahsa. On the banks of this brook the Israelites had their encampment on the way from Egypt to the Promised Land, near the end of their forty years’ wandering in the wilderness. The brook flows through a very deep ravine and contains a hot spring, which the Arabs call “the spring of Solomon, son of David.”

Zeredah

(coolness, refreshment; 1 Kings 11:26; 2 Chron. 4:17)—a town near Succoth, the home of Jeroboam son of Nebat. In the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zeredah, Solomon cast the bronze furnishings for the Temple in clay molds. The parallel passage reads Zarethan (1 Kings 7:46).

Zererah

(Judg. 7:22)—a place near Beth-shittah and Abel-meholah toward which the Midianites fled after Gideon’s victory. Its relationship to Zarethan is uncertain.

Zereth

(brightness, splendor; 1 Chron. 4:7)—a son of Helah and Ashhur in a genealogy of Judah.

Zeri (Izri)

(1 Chron. 25:3, 11)—a son of Jeduthun and one of David’s Temple musicians. The fourth lot in the order of musical service fell to Izri, the alternate form used in verse 11.

Zerubbabel

(born in Babylon) (1 Chron. 3:19) — leader of the first company of Jews, 42,360 in number, besides a great many male and female servants, who returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem, in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia (Ezra 2:64, 65). He was son of Shealtiel (Ezra 3:2; Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27), or of Pedaiah, brother of Shealtiel (1 Chron. 3:16–19), and was descended from the royal house of David through Nathan, according to the testimony of the Evangelist Luke (3:27), and, according to the testimony of the Evangelist Matthew (1:12), through Jechoniah.

Cyrus, king of Persia, entrusted to him the sacred vessels for their return to Jerusalem, together with rich gifts from his captive brethren. Appointed governor of Judea by Cyrus, Zerubbabel, in the second year of the return to Jerusalem, solemnly laid the foundation of the second temple of Jerusalem, on the site of the first. The laying of the temple’s foundation, which took place in the second month of the second year, was carried out with special solemnity: the priests in their vestments played on trumpets; the descendants of Asaph sang with cymbals the same psalms that had been sung at the dedication of the first, Solomonic, temple (2 Chron.

5:11–14), and those elders who remembered the splendor of the former temple wept aloud from sorrow and joy. But the prophet Haggai comforted and encouraged them with the word of the LORD, that the glory of this latter temple would be greater than the glory of the former (Hag. 2:9). After this, much labor, care, and effort still lay ahead for Zerubbabel, for the continuation of the building of the temple and for the establishment of good order, both ecclesiastical and civil, amid a multitude of enemies and obstacles.

He was hindered and opposed in the building of the temple both by the Samaritans and by the governors of the provinces beyond the river, who were bribed by the Samaritans and slandered the Jews before the royal court (Ezra 4). But with God’s help, and with the assistance of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel overcame all the schemes of his enemies. “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house,” says God through the prophet; “his hands shall also finish it” (Zech. 4:9), and indeed he had the consolation of seeing the completion of the temple and its solemn dedication, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, on the third day of the month Adar, amid numerous sacrifices and the general rejoicing of the people (Ezra 5, 6).

The new temple, dedicated to the LORD, stood majestically on the site of the one destroyed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Besides the building of the temple, Zerubbabel’s other achievements included, among others, the following: the restoration of the priestly and levitical courses of service (Ezra 6:18), the correction of the genealogies (Neh. 6:5 [as given]), and the celebration of the Passover in the seventh year of the reign of Darius. In general, religion and patriotism especially marked the character of Zerubbabel throughout the whole of his public activity.

Zerubbabel is also called by the Persian name Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah (Ezra 1:8). Zoheb (greedily seizing, grasping) (1 Chr 4:20)—one of the sons of Ishi, mentioned in the genealogy of the tribe of Judah.

Zeruiah Saruia

(balm; resin)—a daughter of Jesse, sister of David, and mother of Abishai, Joab, and Asahel. The source observes that Scripture does not explicitly call her a daughter of Jesse, whereas her sister Abigail is called a daughter of Nahash; both women are nevertheless called sisters of Jesse’s sons. It records the older conjecture that Nahash was an Ammonite king and the former husband of Jesse’s wife, while acknowledging that Zeruiah’s husband is unknown.

Zetham

(an olive planting) (1 Chron. 23:8) — son of Laadan, a Levite, a Gershonite.

Zevan

(an olive tree) (1 Chron. 7:10) — of the sons of Bilhan, a Benjamite.

Zevar

(star) (Esth. 1:10 [as given]) — one of the eunuchs at the court of Ahasuerus, king of Persia.

Ziah

(fear) (1 Chron. 5:13) — of the descendants of Gad, mentioned among the chief men of that tribe, who dwelt in Bashan.

Ziba Siba

(pillar; foundation)—the name of two persons. (1) (2 Sam. 9:2) a servant from Saul’s household through whom David learned that Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth was still alive. When David restored Saul’s property to Mephibosheth, Ziba again served the estate. Thereafter his name remains linked with Mephibosheth in an unfavorable light: while David fled from Absalom, Ziba deceitfully misrepresented his master to the king and sought thereby to secure the property for himself. See Mephibosheth. (2) (1 Kings 4:3, source form) the father of two scribes under Solomon; the standard biblical form is Shisha.

Zibeon

(Gen. 36:14). See the preceding entry Zibeon.

Zibeon

(variegated, colored)—(1) a Hivite and father of Anah, whose daughter Oholibamah became a wife of Esau (Gen. 36:2, 14); (2) a son of Seir and chief among the Horites in Edom (Gen. 36:20, 29; 1 Chron. 1:38). The genealogical relationship between the Hivite and Horite descriptions is uncertain.

Zibiah Sabia

(gazelle)—(1) a son of Shaharaim and Hodesh in Moab (1 Chron. 8:9); (2) the mother of King Joash of Judah, a woman from Beersheba (2 Kings 12:1; 2 Chron. 24:1). Joash reigned forty years in Jerusalem.

Zichri

(glorious, renowned) — name of the following persons:

Zichri:

Ziddim Tyrians Tyre

(Josh. 19:35)—one of the fortified towns allotted to Naphtali.

Ziha

(parched, dry)—(1) an ancestor of a family of temple servants who returned from Babylon (Ezra 2:43); (2) with Gishpa, an overseer of the temple servants living on the Ophel in Jerusalem (Neh. 11:21).

Ziklag

(oppressed) (Josh. 15:31; 1 Sam. 27:6)—a city at the southern end of Judah’s territory, though originally assigned to Simeon. In Saul’s time it belonged to the Philistines, and Achish their king temporarily gave it to David while David fled from Saul. During David’s absence the Amalekites burned the city and took the women and children captive. David pursued and defeated them with God’s help and recovered all the spoil (1 Sam. 30). David received the news of Saul’s death there (2 Sam. 1:1). The source places its ruins at Asluj or Kasluj, east of Zephath, southeast of Halas, and about sixty English miles southwest of Hebron.

Ziklag

(Josh. 15:31; 19:5; 1 Chron. 4:30)—a town assigned to Simeon within Judah’s territory. See Ziklag in the earlier volume.

Zillethai

(1 Chron. 12:20)—a Manassite commander who deserted to David at Ziklag.

Zilpah

(purchase, a small thing) — handmaid of Leah, wife of Jacob (Gen. 29:24; 30:9, 10), and afterward, as a concubine, mother by him of his sons Gad and Asher (30:9–13).

Zilthai

(shady; 1 Chron. 8:20)—a Benjamite descendant associated with Shimei and Jerusalem. The spelling and verse numbering vary among textual traditions.

Zimmah

(craftiness, an evil design) — name of three persons:

Zimran

(vinedresser) (Gen. 25:2) — one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah.

Zimri

(worthy of praise) — name of three persons:

Zimri

(worthy of praise) (Jer. 25:25) — a tribe or people whose king is mentioned in the cited passage together with various other peoples and kings, as having to drink the cup of the wine of God’s fury for their iniquities.

Zimri

(worthy of praise) — name of two persons:

Zion

—originally the fortified hill of the Jebusites at Jerusalem. David captured it, Joab leading the assault, and it became the City of David, the royal stronghold on Jerusalem’s southwestern hill. David established his residence there; Solomon later built his palace nearby, and Herod’s palace occupied the western side of the city. The name Zion was afterward extended to the Temple hill and at times to Jerusalem as a whole, so its exact geographical force varies by passage.

Zior Soraith

(Josh. 15:54)—a town in the hill country of Judah, listed near Hebron.

Ziph

— of two cities of the same name in the tribe of Judah, one to the south, on the borders of the land of Edom (Josh. 15:24), and the other several miles from Hebron, in the hill country (Josh. 15:55), on the borders of the wilderness of Ziph (1 Sam. 23:14–25), which formed part of the wilderness of Judea, in which David hid, fleeing from Saul. This city, in all likelihood, was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:8). Three English miles from Hebron there is still to be found a hill called Tell Zif.

Ziphion Saphon

(watcher; Gen. 46:16)—a son of Gad who went with Jacob’s household to Egypt. See Zephon.

Ziphites

(1 Sam. 23:19) — inhabitants of the city and wilderness of Ziph, near the wilderness of Maon and Mount Carmel, notable for their hypocrisy toward David during his sojourn in this wilderness. They feigned friendship toward him, while twice betraying his whereabouts to Saul, thereby exposing him to great danger, from which he escaped the first time quite by chance, and the second time only through the shame and repentance of Saul himself. Psalm 54 [53], written by David on the occasion of his first deliverance from this danger, glorifies God for His help and His mercies toward him.

Ziphron Dephrona

(fragrance; Num. 34:9)—a point or town on the northern boundary of Canaan.

Zipporah Sepphora

(bird) (Exod. 2:21)—the wife of Moses and a daughter of the priest of Midian. When one of her sons had not been circumcised at the proper time, “the LORD met him, and sought to kill him” (Exod. 4:24). Zipporah immediately performed the circumcision with a flint, touched his feet with the foreskin, and cried, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me” (Exod. 4:25–26). The source takes the threatened person to be Moses, though the pronoun in the biblical narrative is ambiguous. Zipporah and her children were probably then sent back to her father; Moses met them again when Israel reached Rephidim during the wilderness journey. How long she lived afterward is unknown.

Ziv Ziu

(borrowed) (1 Kings 4:37 [as given]) — the second sacred month of the Hebrew year and the eighth of the civil year, corresponding to the latter half of April and the first half of May of our year. In this month Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD.

Ziv and Oreb

(wolf and raven) (Judg. 8:3; Ps. 83:11, 12 [82:11, 12]) — of the princes of Midian, struck down by the judge Gideon. Ziv is constantly mentioned together with Oreb. Ziv met his death at a winepress, which afterward, from this circumstance, bore the name Jekev-Zeeb, that is, “the winepress of Zeeb.”

Ziza

(splendor) — name of three persons:

Zoan (Tanis)

(Num. 13:22; Pss. 78:12, 43)—an ancient city in the northeastern Nile Delta. Numbers says that Zoan was built seven years after Hebron. It became an important royal and administrative center and is called Tanis in Judith 1:10. Its ruins lie at modern San el-Hagar. The source’s citations to Exodus are printer’s errors for Isaiah 19:11, 13 and 30:4.

Zoar

(small) (Gen. 14:2)—a small city originally called Bela. The source follows interpreters who placed it at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea in the valley of Kerak, where Lot and his daughters withdrew after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. It still existed in Isaiah’s time (Isa. 15:5) and is mentioned by Jeremiah (Jer. 48:34). Travelers found ruins there that the source tentatively connected with the ancient city, though other interpreters placed it north of the Dead Sea. Its precise site, like Sodom’s, could not be fixed.

The king of Zoar joined four others in rebellion against Chedorlaomer and was defeated. Zoar was afterward spared at Lot’s request when he fled there with his family from divine judgment. Josephus counted it an Arabian city near the end of the Dead Sea.

Zob

(2 Sam. 23:36). See Zobah.

Zobah (source form Suva)

(1 Sam. 14:47; 2 Sam. 8:3; 10:6)—an Aramean kingdom north of Damascus and extending toward the Euphrates. Saul fought its kings; David defeated Hadadezer of Zobah and later the allied Aramean forces. Its precise capital and boundaries varied and remain uncertain; the encyclopedia’s identification with the region of Aleppo is a broad historical proposal.

Zobah (Suva)

(1 Esd. 5:34)—ancestor of a family among the servants of Solomon who returned with Zerubbabel.

Zobeb

(talkative; 1 Chron. 4:8)—a descendant of Coz in the tribe of Judah.

Zodiac, or Constellations

(Job 38:32; 2 Kings 23:5). Observations of the sun, moon, and the periodic phenomena of various stars and constellations led the astronomers of antiquity to divide the year into months, to introduce a cyclical reckoning of years, and to divide the astronomical charts of the celestial hemispheres into twelve parts, called by the Greeks the zodiac.

Zogdiana.

See Media and Persia.

Zohar Saar

(white, bright)—(1) father of Ephron, from whom Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah for Sarah’s burial (Gen. 23:8; 25:9); (2) a son of Simeon and ancestor of a Simeonite clan (Gen. 46:10; Exod. 6:15), called Zerah in Numbers 26:13; (3) a son of Helah and Ashhur in a genealogy of Judah (1 Chron. 4:7).

Zoheleth Zoelethi

(serpent) (1 Kings 1:9)—a stone or rock by the spring of En-rogel, probably in the valley to the southeast of Jerusalem. Here Adonijah held a feast for his brothers and the men of the tribe of Judah when he attempted to seize his father’s throne, under the circumstances set out in 1 Kings, chapter 1.

Zophah

(1 Chron. 7:35-36)—a son of Helem and father of eleven sons, listed among the descendants of Asher as heads of ancestral houses and able warriors.

Zophai (Zuph)

(honeycomb; 1 Chron. 6:26, 35)—a son or descendant of Elkanah in the Kohathite line. The related name Zuph appears later in the genealogy.

Zophar

(Job 2:11)—the Naamathite, one of Job’s three friends. He came to mourn and comfort Job, but in the ensuing debate he spoke with particular severity, insisting that hidden guilt must explain Job’s suffering (Job 11; 20).

Zorah

(Josh. 15:33; 19:41; Judg. 13:25)—a town of the Shephelah assigned to Dan within Judah’s lowland. It lay near Eshtaol and is often named with it. Rehoboam fortified Zorah, Jews resettled it after the exile, and Samson was born in its vicinity (Judg. 13:2; 16:31; 2 Chron. 11:10; Neh. 11:29).

Zorites Malathi Esari

(1 Chron. 2:53-54; 4:2)—inhabitants or clans associated with Zorah. Their neighbors are called Eshtaolites.

Zui, Zuika

[the dotterel/plover] (Lev 11:19, Deut 14:18)—one of the marsh or shore birds, found in Egypt, where it is kept as a domestic bird. Under the Law of Moses it belonged to the class of unclean birds and could not be eaten.

Zuph

—(1) an ancestor of Elkanah and Samuel (1 Sam. 1:1); (2) a Kohathite ancestor in a Levitical genealogy (1 Chron. 6:35); (3) the land or district of Zuph, near Ramah in the hill country of Ephraim, where Saul came while searching for Kish’s lost donkeys and first met Samuel (1 Sam. 9:5-6).

Zur

(rock, cliff)—(1) a Midianite chief and father of Cozbi, whom Zimri brought into Israel’s camp; Phinehas killed them during the apostasy at Shittim (Num. 25:15). (2) One of the Midianite leaders under Sihon whom Israel killed in Moses’ time (Josh. 13:21). These first two notices may concern the same man. (3) A son of Jeiel and Maacah, from the family of Gibeon (1 Chron. 8:30; 9:36).

Zuriel Suriel

(God is my rock; Num. 3:35-37)—son of Abihail and leader of the Merarite clans. In Moses’ census the Merarites numbered 6,200 males one month old and upward. They were charged with the tabernacle’s frames, bars, pillars, bases, courtyard posts, pegs, cords, and associated equipment.

Zuzim Ommaeans

—a word of unknown origin, denoting a tribe or people mentioned in the Bible only once, namely in the book of Genesis (14:5), where it is said that Chedorlaomer, together with other kings, struck down, among other peoples, the Zuzim in Ham. It is difficult to determine the region in which this ancient people lived; however, it probably lay a little to the north of the Arnon. The obscurity of this passage in Genesis is somewhat clarified by the Syriac translation of Genesis 14:5: “They struck,” it says there, “a mighty people who dwelt in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Ammonites who dwelt in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and a valiant people who were found among them (that is, presumably the Zuzim in Ham).” From this it is not improbable that Ham is identical with Ammon, and from this it may be concluded with some plausibility that the Zuzim lived in the land of the Ammonites.

The obscurity of these most ancient names and references in the book of Genesis is itself, so to speak, a remarkable testimony to the extreme antiquity of the narrative. The philological difficulties presented by many of these names likewise serve, for scholarly critics, as a notable confirmation of the authenticity and truth of the sacred narrative: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8).