Zerah (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. One of the sons of Keuel, the son of Esau by his Canaanitish, or Ishmaelite, wife, Ba.seniath (Gn 36"- ", 1 Ch V"). The name apnears again as that of the father of Jobab, one of the early kings of K<lom (Gn 36^, 1 Ch 1"). 2. The younger bom of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar his daughter- in-law. The peculiar circuni.stancesof his birth are made to account for his name (Gn .38' [J]). He gives his name to the Zerahites (Nu 20-^). Of this family was .Vchan the son of Zabdi {Zap-^pel, LXX Jos 7' ; Zimri, 1 Ch 2), who took of the spoil of Ai contrary to the Divine command. Zerah's sons are mentioned 1 Ch 9", and rctliahiah (Neh 11'-') is one of his descendants. He linds a place along with PEREZ his twin brother in the gene- alogy of our Lord (Mt 1'). 3. A son of Simeon, anil the founder of a family of Zerahites within that tribe (Nu 20', 1 Ch 4-'^) ; called alho Zohar (Gn •IG"', Ex G"). 4. A Levitc name, borne bv a Geislionito (1 Ch 6=') and by a Kolialhite (1 Ch 6^'). 8. The name of the Cushite ('2 Ch 14"'») who invaded Judah in the reign of Asa (c. 911-871 B.C.), vou IV.— 6« and sufTered a disastrous defeat at Maresliah In the south-west of the land. The invasion of Judah by Zerab the Cushite la unknown to secular history, and rests solely upon the authority of the Chronicler. This circumstance, together with the fact that the name of Zerah the Cushite does not appear in any list of the kinps of E[^ypt, has led Wellhausen (/fwfon/ o/ Israel, p. 207), Stade, and otiiers to pronounce the narrative unhistorical. It is, they say, an invention conceived for the pur|X)se of mak- ing the historical overthrow of Rehoboam into a triumph on ttie part of his descendant : it had its origin at llie time when Cushites ruled in Egypt, and tran^ferrtd a condition of atTairs which was true of a later time to the days of Asa. But this is an excess of historical scepticism. There is nothing in the inscriptions inconsistent with the narrative of the Chronicler. 'There is so little known,' says Wiedemaim {Geschiclite von Alt. AgypUn, p. 155), 'from tiie time of Osorkon I. that it cannot be considered i)e\ ond the bounds of probability for an Etliiopian invader to iiuve made himyelf master of the Nile Valley for a time in his reign, and for him and not Usorkon I. to be the Zerah of the Chronicler.' Zerah was identified by Champollion {Pride du SysUme hieroijly. phique-, pp. 257-262) with Osorkon i., the second king of the 22na dynasty ; and the identification has been accepted by Ewald and others. The discovery of M. Naville in the ruins of Bubastis{/>'u^a(i', pp. 50, 51 f.; Sayce, 11 CM p. 363) goes rather to connect the invasion with Osorkon il., who is made to declare on a moniunent that * the Upper and Lower Jtuteimu have been thrown under his feet." This would show that Osorkon ii. had been engaged in a campaign in Palestine, wtiicii is designated Upper Ivutennu in the geographical language of Egvpt. Homniel (J/77' p. 315n. ; cf. Ball, LiijIU from the East, \i'. 82) thinks that Zerah and his Cushites were from South Arabia, a view which is favoured by the character of the spoils,— tents, sheep, and camels, — as well as by the very name Zerah, which resembles Zirrikh or Dhirrih, a royal name in the newly -found Sabaian inscriptions. This view is fa\oured,too, by the designa- tion of the people as 'Aii^^o^us in the LXX (2Ch 141S), which may be compared with the bdnu Mazirit the Ua'din of the same inscription.! Ln KRATCRE. — In addition to references given above see Sayce, Kaypt of the Hebrews, n. Ill ; Maspero, Strtuiftle of the A'ationSt p. 774 ; McCurdy, UPM i. 259 ; Heraog, PRE 2 xvii, 473. T. NicoL.