Tirzah (Hebrew: תרצה) is a Hebrew word meaning "she is my delight." In the Bible it is the name of a woman, one of the daughters of Zelophehad.
Hebrew name [link]
Tirzah is first mentioned in the Torah (Numbers 26:33) as one of the five daughters of Zelophehad. After the death of their father, the five sisters went to Moses and asked him for hereditary rights (Numbers 27:1-11). Moses brought their plea to God, and it was granted. To this day, women in Judaism have the right to inherit property.
Tirzah (my delight) was one of those five daughters of Zelophehad, whose heiresship occupies two chapters of the Book of Numbers. She probably was the origin of Thirza, the name of Abel's wife in Gessner's idyll of the Death of Abel, a great favourite among the lower classes in England, whence Thyrza has become rather a favourite in English cottages.—Yonge, 1878[1]
Tirzah in literature [link]
Tirzah is a figure in William Blake's mythology, notably in his poem To Tirzah from Songs of Experience. According to Northrop Frye, Blake identified both the city and daughter of Zelophehad with worldiness and materialism, as opposed to the spiritual realm of Jerusalem in Judah.[2] The name Tirzah has a similar symbolism in Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, in which it is given to the leprosy afflicted sister of Judah Ben-Hur, who is eventually cleansed by Jesus. The character of Tirzah appears in William Wyler's 1959 Academy Award winning Best Picture Ben-Hur. Tirzah is also the main character in Sara Douglass's novel Threshold. Tirzah is one of the names used to refer to the character "Angel" in Francine Rivers's book, Redeeming Love.
References [link]
- ^ Charlotte Mary Yonge, 1878 History of Christian Names. p. 38
- ^ Interpretations of Blake
https://wn.com/Tirzah
Tirzah (ancient city)
Tirzah (Hebrew: תִּרְצָה) was a town in the Samarian highlands NE of Shechem; it is generally identified with Tell el-Far'ah (North), NE of modern Nablus, in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian village of Wadi al-Far'a and the Far'a refugee camp. It is located in a valley named Wadi Far'a in Arabic and Tirzah Valley or Nahal Tirza in Hebrew.
In the Bible
The town of Tirzah is first mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 12:24 as having had a king whom the Israelites smote; it is not mentioned again until after the period of the United Monarchy.
During the time of King Jeroboam, Tirzah is mentioned as the place where Abijah, son of Jeroboam, died as a result of illness (1 Kings 14:17). Later Tirzah is described as a capital of the northern kingdom of Israel during the reigns of Baasha, Elah, Zimri and Omri (1 Kings 15:33, 1 Kings 16:8, 1 Kings 16:23). The royal palace at Tirzah was set on fire by Zimri when he was faced with having to surrender to Omri. Omri reigned from Tirzah for six years after which he moved Israel's capital to Samaria.
Tirzah (disambiguation)
Tirzah or Thyrza may refer to:
