Zerah

Zerah or Zérach (זֶרַח‎ / זָרַח‎‎ "sunrise" Standard Hebrew Zéraḥ / Záraḥ, Tiberian Hebrew Zéraḥ / Zāraḥ) refers to several people in the Hebrew Bible.^[1]

An Edomite

Zerah was the name of an Edomite chief. He was listed as the second son of Reuel, son of Basemath, who was Ishmael's daughter and one of the wives of Esau the brother of Jacob (Israel) (Genesis 36:13, 17).

Son of Tamar and Judah

According to the Book of Genesis, Zerah was the son of Tamar and Judah, and was the twin of Perez (Genesis 38:30). This same Zerah is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:3.

Zerah is also listed as the ancestor of Achan, who was stoned to death as recounted in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 7:1). Achan is the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri, the son of Zerah.

Simeonite clan

The Bible also identifies Zerah as the name of the founder of one of the Simeonite clans.^[2]

The Cushite

Zerah the Cushite is mentioned by the Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 14:9–15). There he is said to have invaded the Kingdom of Judah with an enormous army in the days of Asa. According to the text, when Zerah's army reached that of Asa at the valley of Zephathah near Mareshah, Zerah's army was utterly defeated, by divine intervention, and Asa's forces collected a large volume of spoils of war.

The invasion, and its implied time-frame, means that the traditional view was to consider this Zerah to have actually been Usarkon II or Usarkon I,^[3] both being rulers of Egypt. Usarkon II is known to have entered the Kingdom of Judah with a huge army in 853 BCE; however, rather than attacking Judah, the army was just passing through on its way to attack the Assyrian forces. In addition, Asa's reign is traditionally dated to have ended in 873 BCE. In the Book of Kings, which doesn't mention Asa's defeat of Zerah, Asa is described as being extremely weak from a defensive point of view (1 Kings 15:16–22), and Biblical scholars regard the idea that Asa could defeat an enormous Egyptian army to be untenable.^[4] More recent scholars consider that Zerah the Cushite may have been a military commander under Osorkon I rather than a Pharaoh.^[5]

Furthermore, Cushite refers to Kush. It is unclear why either Usarkon should be described as a Cushite.^[6] The name “Zerah” may have been a corruption of “Usarkon” (U-Serak-on), to which it closely resembles (see Petrie, Egypt and Israel, 74), but most scholars do not identify Zerah with Usarkon II. The publication by Naville (1891) of an inscription in which Usarkon II would claim to have invaded Lower and Upper Palestine suggests this Pharaoh as the victor over Asa. However, the Bible contends that Asa won the battle.

It is a possibility that Cushites gained dominance in Upper and Lower Egypt during the 9th and 8th century. Zerah was most likely a Cushite of Nubia located in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan who came to power as ruler of Egypt or at the very least a Nubian commander of The Egyptian/Nubian armies. William F. Albright suggested that Zerah was the governor of a Cushite colony which had been established by Shishak after his campaign in Israel.^[7] Isaiah 18:2 tells us that the Cushites (Ethiopians) were feared far and wide for conquests and destruction (being a powerful nation who dominated ancient kingdoms). Cushites were a very formidable people who were expert archers famous in the ancient world for surprise attacks with the bow and arrow.^[6]

In the genealogies of the Book of Chronicles

The Book of Chronicles mentions a Zerah who was a Gershonite Levite (1 Chr. 6:6; 6:26).

References

^ For the etymology see Chad Brand; Archie England; Charles W. Draper (2003). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. B&H Publishing Group. p. 2403. ISBN 978-1-4336-6978-1.
^ Numbers 26:13
^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica (1899).
^ Encyclopædia Britannica, "Asa"
^ Pierce, Krystal V. L. (2022). "Egypt and the Levant in the Third Intermediate Period (Iron IB–IIIA)". In Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce, George A. (eds.). The Ancient Israelite World. Taylor & Francis. p. 664. ISBN 978-1-000-77324-8.
^ ^a ^b Cheyne and Black, Commentary on the Bible
^ Albright, W. F. (1924). Egypt and the Early History of the Negeb. Palestine Oriental Society.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Zerah". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.