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•ZEPHATH beacon; watch-tower, a Canaanite town; called also Hormah (q.v.), Judges 1:17. It has been identified with the pass of es-Sufah, but with greater probability with S’beita.
•ZEPHATHAH a valley in the west of Judah, near Mareshah; the scene of Asa’s conflict with Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chronicles 14:9-13). Identified with the Wady Safieh.
•ZERAH sunrise. (1.) An “Ethiopian,” probably Osorkon II., the successor of Shishak on the throne of Egypt. With an enormous army, the largest we read of in Scripture, he invaded the kingdom of Judah in the days of Asa (2 Chronicles 14:9-15). He reached Zephathah, and there encountered the army of Asa. This is the only instance “in all the annals of Judah of a victorious encounter in the field with a first-class heathen power in full force.” The Egyptian host was utterly routed, and the Hebrews gathered “exceeding much spoil.” Three hundred years elapsed before another Egyptian army, that of Necho (B.C. 609), came up against Jerusalem.
(2.) A son of Tamar (Genesis 38:30); called also Zara (Matthew 1:3). (3.) A Gershonite Levite (1 Chronicles 6:21, 41).