Tirzah (Hastings' Dictionary)

Mentioned Jos 12=^ as one of the 31 places whose kings Joshua smote. Tirzah afterwards became tlie capital of Jerolioam I., presumably of his son Nadab, and certainly of the three adventurers, Baasha, Elah, and Zimri (1 K 14" 15-'- ss 1G«- »• »• "). In 1 K 14" the reading of the LXX (A) is Sapipd, i.e. Zercda, Jeroboam's birthplace. Baasha was buried at Tirzah ( 1 K 10''), probably Elah also, as it was there he was slain wliile drinking in the house of one of his oflioers (v."'-).

The Omrides transferred the seat of govern- ment to Samaria (vv.-»- -"), but Tirzah retained its importance probably as a fortress, as it was there [if MT be correct, but cf. LXX and Buhl, p. 247] that Menahem gathered a force to attack Shallura (2 K 15'''). After this Tirzah drops out of history. In Ca 6* the Sliulammite is declared to be beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem. The Heb. custom of per.sonifying cities as women robs this comparison of the strangeness it would else have for us.

It may be the fjlory and prestige of the capital that leu to the simile, quite as much as the circumstance that Tirzah had a reputation for beauty, or that it occupied a site renowned for its loveliness. • Neither LXX nor Vulgato take Tirzah hero on a proper name. A derivation from .njq, to delight, Ig implied in tlieil renderings {tUtuin, ttiavi). 780 TISHBITE TITHE The site of Tirz.ah has not yet been recovered beyond doulit.

Triasir, a fortress on the high road from Shechuin to Bethshan at its junction with the Abel-inehohih road (see G. A. Smith, HGUL 355), seems too far north to suit 2 K 15", and generally farther north tlian Jeroboam would be likely to fix his home. Robinson {BliP' iii. 302 f.) suggests tlie identilitation of Tirzah witli Tulluzah, a town on a liill not far north of Mt. Ebal, which agrees witli the position assigned to Thersa by Brocardus (Descriptio, v\i.), 3 leases east of Samaria. A.

Socin in Baedeker's Pal. and Syr. accepts this identilication ; but Buhl (GAP 203) is inclined to identify Tirzali with the modem et-Tire, the Tirathana of Jos. {.Int. xviu. iv. 1) in tlie neigh- bourhood of Gerizim. 2. One of tlie five daugliters of Zelophebad who.se case decided woman's rights in property among the Jews. The order of their names (Nu26**27' 36", Jos 17', all 1') differs in 36" from tliat of the other lists, and Heb. and LXX do not agiee. A. S. Aglen.