- ZEMARITE the designation of one of the Phoenician tribes (Genesis
10:18) who inhabited the town of Sumra, at the western base of the
Lebanon range. In the Amarna tablets (B.C. 1400) Zemar, or Zumur, was
one of the most important of the Phoenician cities, but it afterwards
almost disappears from history. - ZEMIRA vine-dresser, a Benjamite; one of the sons of Becher (1
Chronicles 7:8). - ZENAS a disciple called “the lawyer,” whom Paul wished Titus to bring
with him (Titus 3:13). Nothing more is known of him. - ZEPHANIAH Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. (1.) The
son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of
the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah
(B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had
much in common. The book of his prophecies consists of:
(a) An introduction (1:1-6), announcing the judgment of the world, and the
judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions.
(b) The description of the judgment (1:7-18).
(c) An exhortation to seek God while there is still time (2:1-3).
(d) The announcement of judgment on the heathen (2:4-15).
(e) The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7).
(f) The promise of salvation (3:8-20).
(2.) The son of Maaseiah, the “second priest” in the reign of Zedekiah,
often mentioned in Jeremiah as having been sent from the king to inquire
(Jeremiah 21:1) regarding the coming woes which he had denounced, and to
entreat the prophet’s intercession that the judgment threatened might be
averted (Jeremiah 29:25, 26, 29; 37:3; 52:24). He, along with some other
captive Jews, was put to death by the king of Babylon “at Riblah in the
land of Hamath” (2 Kings 25:21).
(3.) A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:36).
(4.) The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when Darius
issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt (Zechariah 6:10).