Tirzah
Tirzah, a Canaanite city captured by Joshua, later served as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel before Samaria.
The name Tirzah means “benevolent; complaisant; pleasing”
PlaceOld Testament4 books13 verses
Summary
A location first mentioned at Joshua 12:24; only referred to as Tirzah (תִּרְצָה).
Location
- Identified as
- Tell el Farah
- Certainty
- Likely (83% of scholarship)
- Coordinates
- 32.287° N, 35.338° E
Glossary entries
Alternative names
- תִּרְצָהTirzah
Mentions
- …and the king of Tirzah, one. So there were thirty-one kings in all.
- Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and departed for Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.
- When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah.
- In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah twenty-four years.
- And Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah reigned in his place.
- In the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.
- However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.
- In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon of the Philistines,
- Then Omri and all the Israelites marched up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.
- In the thirty-first year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
- Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah to Samaria, struck down and killed Shallum son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.
- At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.
- You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.