the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Zerah
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Ze'rah. (rising (of the sun)).
1. A son of Reuel, son of Esau, Genesis 36:13; 1 Chronicles 1:37. And one of the "dukes," or phylarchs, of the Edomites. Genesis 36:17. (B.C. after 1760).
2. Less properly, Zarah, twin son, with his elder brother, Pharez, of Judah and Tamar. Genesis 38:30; 1 Chronicles 2:4; Matthew 1:3. (B.C. about 1728). His descendants were called Zarhites, Ezrahites and Izrahites. Numbers 26:20; 1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 27:8; 1 Chronicles 27:11.
3. Son of Simeon, 1 Chronicles 4:24 called Zohar in Genesis 46:10. (B.C. 1706).
4. A Gershonite Levite, son of Iddo or Adaiah. 1 Chronicles 6:21; 1 Chronicles 6:41. (B.C. 1043).
5. The Ethiopian or Cushite, an invader of Judah, defeated by Asa about B.C. 941. See ASA. Zerah is probably the Hebrew name of Usarken I, second king of the Egyptian twenty-second dynasty; or perhaps, more probably, Usarken II, his second successor. In the fourteenth year of Asa, Zerah, the Ethiopian, with a mighty army of four million, invaded his kingdom, and advanced unopposed in the field as far as the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
The Egyptian monuments enable us to picture the general disposition of Zerah's army. The chariots formed the first corps in a single or double line; behind them, massed in phalanxes, were heavy-armed troops; probably on the flanks stood archers and horsemen in lighter formations. After a prayer by Asa, his army attacked the Egyptians and defeated them. The chariots, broken by the charge and with horses made unmanageable by flights of arrows must have been forced back upon the cumbrous host behind.
So complete was the overthrow, that the Hebrews could capture and spoil the cities around Gerah which must have been in alliance with Zerah. The defeat of the Egyptian army is without parallel in the history of the Jews. On no other occasion did an Israelite army meet an army of one of the great powers and defeat it.
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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Zerah'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/z/zerah.html. 1901.
