- ZIZAH a Gershonite Levite (1 Chronicles 23:11).
- ZOAN (Old Egypt. Sant= “stronghold,” the modern San). A city on the
Tanitic branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It was built seven
years after Hebron in Palestine (Numbers 13:22). This great and important
city was the capital of the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who ruled Egypt
for more than 500 years. It was the frontier town of Goshen. Here Pharaoh
was holding his court at the time of his various interviews with Moses and
Aaron. “No trace of Zoan exists; Tanis was built over it, and city after city
has been built over the ruins of that” (Harper, Bible and Modern
Discovery). Extensive mounds of ruins, the wreck of the ancient city, now
mark its site (Isaiah 19:11, 13; 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14). “The whole
constitutes one of the grandest and oldest ruins in the world.”
This city was also called “the Field of Zoan” (Psalm 78:12, 43) and “the
Town of Rameses” (q.v.), because the oppressor rebuilt and embellished it,
probably by the forced labour of the Hebrews, and made it his northern
capital.
- ZOAR small, a town on the east or south-east of the Dead Sea, to which
Lot and his daughters fled from Sodom (Genesis 19:22, 23). It was
originally called Bela (14:2, 8). It is referred to by the prophets Isaiah
(15:5) and Jeremiah (48:34). Its ruins are still seen at the opening of the
ravine of Kerak, the Kir-Moab referred to in 2 Kings 3, the modern Tell
esh-Shaghur. - ZOBAH =Aram-Zobah, (Psalm 60, title), a Syrian province or kingdom
to the south of Coele-Syria, and extending from the eastern slopes of
Lebanon north and east toward the Euphrates. Saul and David had war
with the kings of Zobah (1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:3; 10:6). - ZOHAR brightness. (1.) The father of Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:8).
(2.) One of the sons of Simeon (Genesis 46:10; Exodus 6:15).
- ZOHELETH the serpent-stone, a rocky plateau near the centre of the
village of Siloam, and near the fountain of En-rogel, to which the women of
the village resort for water (1 Kings 1:5-9). Here Adonijah (q.v.) feasted all
the royal princess except Solomon and the men who took part with him in
his effort to succeed to the throne. While they were assembled here
Solomon was proclaimed king, through the intervention of Nathan. On