TIRZAH pleasantness ;' eepcat ; Oap ,: • o-tXd ; Alex. eepAci ; eeperd ; Therm), an ancient royal city of the Canaanites, captured by Joshua (Josh. xit. 24). After its conquest it is not again mentioned in history till the time of Jeroboam, who appears to have chosen it as his principal residence. He was at least living there when his son Abijah died (1 Kings xiv. 17). Fmm this period till the founding of Samaria by Omri (some fifty years) it continued to be the capital of the northern king dom (xv. 2I, 33). It was the scene of Elah's mut- der (xvi. 8), and there too Zimri the murderer, to escape the avenging sword of Omri, burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died' (ver. 18). The last notice of it in Scripture history is in con nection with Menahem, who went from Tirzah to Samaria, and smote Shallum, and reigned in his stead' (2 Kings xv. 14).
The geographical position of Tirzah has not been given by any ancient geographer. Eusebius and Jerome simply mention it as a city captured by Joshua (Onomast., s. v. Thersa). Brocardus, a writer of the i3th century, appears to have been the first to identify it. He says : From Sa maria it is three leagues eastward to the city of Thersa, which is situated on a high mountain' (Desert:1We Ter. San. vii.) From that time until the visit of Dr. Robinson it remained unknown ; but that acute geographer discovered it in the mo dern Tellthah. The change of r into / is very common, the harder letter being softened, especi ally in the later IIebrew books and the kindred dialects. The place lies in a sightly and com manding position. ... It is surrounded by immense
groves of olive trees, planted on all sides around ; mostly young and thrifty trees. . . . The town is of some size, and tolerably well built. We saw no remains of antiquity, except a few sepulchral exca vations and some cistems' (B. R. iii. 302, 3o3). When compared with other sites in Palestine, the appropriateness of Solomon's figure will be per ceived : 'Thou art beautiful, 0 my love, as Tirzah' (Cant. vi. 4).—J. L. P.
TISHl3ITE Sept. eeapim)s), the Gentile name of Elijah—` Elijah the Tishbite' (1 Kings xvii. 2 ; XXi. I7)—derived from a town called Tishbi in the tribe of Naphtali, the name of which occurs only in Tob. 2, OicrPn (see Reland, tina, p. io35).
TISRI (4-dn, from a root which denotes to begin) was the first month of the civil, and the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year, in which fell the Festival of Atonement and.that of Taber nacles. In Kings viii. 2 it is ternaed the month of Ethanim, that is, the month of streaming rivers, which are filled during this month by the autumnal rains. It corresponds with our September-Oc tober. Tisri is one of the six names of months found in Palmyrene inscriptions ; which, with other evidence, renders it very probable that the Jewish names of months form a member in a great series of names of months, which were,extensively in use in the eastern parts of the world (see Ueber die Monatsnamen einiger alter Paker von T. Benfey und M. A. Stern, Berlin 1836).—J. R. B.