SHUSHAN (shu'shan), (Heb. shoo-shan').
1. A word which occurs in several passages of the Old Testament and is translated lily in the Authorized Version. In the article KRINON we have mentioned that several plants have been ad duced as the lily of the New Testament, such as Amaryllis lute°, Ixiolirion nzontanum, etc., but that Li/juin chakedonicunt, or thc scarlet mar tagon lily, appears to be the one alluded to by our Savior. Besides the above, there are no doubt several other plants indigenous in Syria, which might be grouped with them, and come under the denomination of lily, when that name is used in a general sense, as it often is by trav elers and others. The term shoo-shan' seems also to have been employed in this sense.
The shoo-shon' of Scripture has been variously interpreted by translators, being by some thought to be the rose, by others the violet, or convallaria, a jasamine, or some one or more of the plants in cluded under the general name of lily. But it ap pears to us that none but a plant which was well known and highly esteemed would be found oc curring in so many different passages. Thus, in Kings vii :t9-26, and 2 Chron. iv :5, it is men tioned as forming the ornamental work of the pillars and of the brazen sea, made of molten brass, for the house of Solomon, by Hiram of Tyre. In Canticles the word is frequently men tioned; and it is curious that in five passages, Cant. ii :2 and 16; iv :5; vi :2 and 3, there is a ref erence to feeding among lilies; which appears un accountable, when we consider that the allusion is made simply to an ornamental or sweet-smelling plant ; and this the shoo-shon appears to have been from other passages in which it is men tioned. Thus in Cant. ii a., 'I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys;' verse 2. `as the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters;' v:t3, 'his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh :' vii :2, 'thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.' If we con sider that the book of Canticles is supposed to have been written on the occasion of the marriage Solomon with a princess of Egypt, it is'natural to suppose that some of the imagery may have been derived from her native country, and that the above lily may be a plant of Egypt, rather than of Palestine. And this appears to us to be the case,
especially as the water lily or lotus of the Nile seems suitable to most of the above passages. (Sec LILY.) 2. Shushan the Palace. Shushan was the Elam ite capital, Susa. It was the chief town and capital of Susiana, called Elam in the Scriptures, in which the kings bad their winter residence (Dan. viii :2 ; Neh. i :1 ; Esther i :2, 5). It was situated upon the Euless or Choaspes, on the spot now occupied by the village Schush (Rennel, Geog. of Ilerodotus; Kinneir, Mem. Pers. Em pire; K. Porter, Travels, ii. 4, t t ; Ritter, Erd kunde Asien, ix. 294; Kitto, Pictorial Bible, on Dan. viii :2). At this place there are extensive ruins, extending perhaps twelve miles from one extremity to the other, and consisting, like the other ruins of this region, of hillocks of earth and rubbish covered with broken pieces of brick and colored tile. At the foot of these mounds is the so-called tomb of Daniel, a small building erected on the spot where the remains of that prophet are locally believed to rest. It is appar ently modern; nothing, however, but the belief that this was the site of the prophet's sepulcher could have led to its being built in the place where it stands (Malcolm, (list, of Persia, i. 255, 256); and it may be added that such identifications are of far more value in these parts, where occasion for them is rare, than among the crowded 'holy places' of Palestine. The city of Schush is now a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, hyenas and other beasts of prey. It is in N. lat. 56' and E. long. 48° 26'.
The term palace is used to translate a Hebrew word which means the fortress and indeed the whole capital city, as well as its chief palace or temple.