Zerah

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Zerah or Zérach (זֶרַח / זָרַח "Sunrise", Standard Hebrew Zéraḥ / Záraḥ, Tiberian Hebrew Zéraḥ / Zāraḥ) refers to five different people in the Bible.

Contents

[edit] The Cushite

Zerah the Cushite, is an individual mentioned by the Book of Chronicles as having invaded the Kingdom of Judah with an enormous army, in the days of Asa[1]. According to the text, when Zerah's army reached that of Asa at Zephathah[2], Zerah's army was utterly defeated, by divine intervention[3], and Asa's forces collected a large volume of spoils of war[4].

The invasion, and its implied time-frame, means that the traditional view was to consider this Zerah to have actually been Osorkon II or Osorkon I[5], both being rulers of Egypt. Osorkon II, is known to have entered the Kingdom of Judah, with a huge army, in 853BC; however, rather than attacking Judah, the army was just passing through, on its way to attack the Assyrian forces. In addition, Asa's reign is traditionally dated to have ended in 873BC, making it impossible for the biblical text to be accurate if Osorkon II was Zerah, since Osorkon II's reign hadn't even begun until one year later - 872BC. In the Book of Kings, which doesn't mention Asa's defeat of Zerah, Asa is described as being extremely weak from a defensive point of view[6], and Biblical scholars regard the idea that Asa could defeat an enormous Egyptian army to be untenable[7].

Furthermore, Cushite refers to Kush (historic Ethiopia), and it is unclear why either Osorkon should be described as a Cushite[8], since the assertion would be unjustified[9]. It is a possibility that Cushite (כושי)is a typographic error for Kassite (כישי), and that it consequently refers to a Babylonian (Kassite) invasion[10], but it is considered far more likely that it refers to an invasion by a marauding group of Arabs[11][12][13], whose numbers have been vastly exaggerated[14].

[edit] Son of Tamar

According to the Book of Genesis, Zerah was the son of Tamar and of Judah, and was the twin of Pharez[15]. The text argues that he was called Zerah because he had stuck his hand out before being born, and the midwife had tied a scarlet thread[16]; although all other biblical uses of the word zerah translate as sunrise, here the name is implied to derive from the colour of the thread - scarlet - which is similar to the initial colour of sunrise.

According to biblical scholars, the birth narrative here is an eponymous aetiological myth concerning the ethnological relationship between parts of the tribe of Judah[17][18]. The narrative would be more appropriate for describing the birth of Shuni (שוני), one of the sons that the Bible later attributes to Gad[19], since the word used for scarlet is shani (שני); in addition, the bible also identifies Zerah as the name of the founder of one of the Simeonite clans[20].

[edit] Names in the Genealogies of the Book of Chronicles

Zerah was a Gershonite Levite (1 Chr. 6:21, 41).

[edit] References

  1. ^ 2 Chronicles 14:9
  2. ^ 2 Chronicles 14:10
  3. ^ 2 Chronicles 14:12-13
  4. ^ 2 Chronicles 14:13-15
  5. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  6. ^ 1 Kings 15:16-22
  7. ^ Encyclopedia Brittanica, Asa
  8. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  9. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
  10. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  11. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica, Asa
  12. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  13. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
  14. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
  15. ^ Genesis 38:30
  16. ^ Genesis 38:30
  17. ^ J. A. Emerton, Judah And Tamar
  18. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  19. ^ Genesis 46:16
  20. ^ Numbers 26:13