- ZEEB the wolf, one of the two leaders of the great Midianite host which
invaded Israel and was utterly routed by Gideon. The division of that host,
which attempted to escape across the Jordan, under Oreb and Zeeb, was
overtaken by the Ephraimites, who, in a great battle, completely
vanquished them, their leaders being taken and slain (Judges 7:25; Psalm
83:11; Isaiah 10:26). - ZELAH slope; side, a town in Benjamin, where Saul and his son Jonathan
were buried (2 Samuel 21:14). It was probably Saul’s birthplace. - ZELEK cleft, an Ammonite; one of David’s valiant men (2 Samuel 23:37).
- ZELOPHEHAD first-born, of the tribe of Manasseh, and of the family of
Gilead; died in the wilderness. Having left no sons, his daughters,
concerned lest their father’s name should be “done away from among his
family,” made an appeal to Moses, who, by divine direction, appointed it
as “a statute of judgment” in Israel that daughters should inherit their
father’s portion when no sons were left (Numbers 27:1-11). But that the
possession of Zelophehad might not pass away in the year of jubilee from
the tribe to which he belonged, it was ordained by Moses that his
daughters should not marry any one out of their father’s tribe; and this
afterwards became a general law (Numbers 36). - ZELOTES (Luke 6:15). See SIMON; ZEALOTS.
- ZEMARAIM (1.) A town of Benjamin (Joshua 18:22); now the ruin,
rather two ruins, es-Sumrah, 4 miles north of Jericho.
(2.) A mount in the highlands of Ephraim, to the north of Jerusalem (2
Chronicles 13:4-20). Here the armies of Abijah and Jeroboam engaged in a
bloody battle, which issued in the total defeat of the king of Israel, who
never “recovered strength again,” and soon after died.