Tirzah

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[edit] Biblical town

Tirzah (Hebrew: תרצה‎) was a town in the Samarian highlands northeast of Shechem; it has been identified with Tell el-Farah (North). The name means "She is friendly".

Tirzah, as a town, is first mentioned in the Bible in Joshua,(Josh. 12:24) as having had a king whom the Israelites smote; it is not mentioned again until after the period of the United Monarchy. Nevertheless, Tell el-Farah was an important town in the early Iron Age; it was the center of what seems to be a network of villages, one of five such networks that make up the Israelite settlement, starting around 1200 B.C., in the highlands between Jerusalem and the Jezreel Valley.

Tirzah is described in the First Book of Kings (15:33, 16:8, 16:23) as a capital of the northern kingdom of Israel for a short time, during the reigns of Baasha, Elah, and Omri.

[edit] Hebrew name

Tirzah is first mentioned in the Torah (Numbers 27:1) 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. Moses brought their plea to God, and it was granted. To this day, women in Judaism have the right to inherit property.

Tirza is also the name of the leprosy afflicted sister of Judah in William Wyler's 1959 Academy Award winning Best Picture Ben-Hur.