the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Bible Encyclopedias
Zillah
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Tsillah', צַלָּה, shade; Sept. Σελλά; Vulg. Sella), last named of the two wives of Lamech the Cainite, to whom he addressed his song (Genesis 4:19; Genesis 4:22-23). B.C. cir. 3500. She was the mother of Tubal- Cain and Naamah. Dr. Kalisch (Common Genesis) regards the names of Lamechts wives and of his daughters as significant of the transition into the period of, art, which took place in his time, and the corresponding change in the position of the woman. "Naamah signifies the lovely, beautiful woman; while the wife of the first man was simply Eve, the life-giving.... The women were, in the age of Lamech, no more regarded merely as the propagators of the human family; beauty and gracefulness began to command homage.... Even the wives of Lamech manifest the transition into this epoch of beauty; for while one wife, Zillah, reminds still of assistance and protection (shadow), the other, Adah, bears a name almost synonymous with Naamah, and likewise signifying ornament and loveliness." In the apocryphal book of Jasar, Adah and Zillah are both daughters of Cainan. Adah bare children, but Zillah was barren till her old age, in consequence of some noxious draught which her husband gave her to preserve her beauty and to prevent her from bearing. (See LAMECH).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Zillah'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/z/zillah.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
