also designates a particular part of Mount Hermon. (Compare 1 Chronicles 5:23.) At Psalm 29:6 Sirion and Lebanon are mentioned together. For this reason it has been suggested that Sirion perhaps refers to the Anti-Lebanon range.—See HERMON.

SISERA

(Sisʹe·ra).

1. Army chief under Canaanite King Jabin. Sisera, who lived at Harosheth rather than at Jabin’s city Hazor, is more prominent in the account than King Jabin. Sometime after Judge Ehud had overthrown Moabite domination, Sisera and Jabin came to oppress Israel for twenty years.—Judg. 4:1-3; 1 Sam. 12:9.

On hearing that Deborah and Barak had mustered the Israelites to fight against him, Sisera collected his forces, including his nine hundred iron-scythed chariots, and engaged Israel at the torrent valley of Kishon. But Jehovah fought against Sisera and threw his whole army into confusion, resulting in their total defeat.—Judg. 4:7, 12-16, 23; 5:20, 21; Ps. 83:9.

His chariots bogged down (compare Judges 5:21), Sisera fled on foot and came to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, who was at peace with Jabin. She invited him inside. Exhausted from the battle and the flight, the weary Sisera, depending on the safety of Jael’s tent, decided to rest. She gave Sisera some milk to drink and he asked her to stand guard. When he had fallen into a sound sleep, Jael stealthily went up to him and drove a tent pin through his temples into the earth. When Barak arrived, Jael presented to him the fallen enemy. (Judg. 4:9, 17-22; 5:25-27) Sisera’s mother and her household waited in vain for him to return with great spoil.—Judg. 5:28-30.

2. Forefather of a family of Nethinim that returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in 537 B.C.E. (Ezra 2:1, 2, 43, 53; Neh. 7:55) War captives were included among the Nethinim, and while some may have been taken at the time Sisera (No. 1 above) was defeated and may have become temple servants, there is no reason to conclude that the Nethinim who returned from Babylon were descendants of the Sisera of Barak’s time.

SISMAI

(Sisʹmai).

A descendant of Judah through Jerahmeel and Sheshan; son of Eleasah and father of Shullam. (1 Chron. 2:3-5, 25, 34, 40) Sismai possibly lived during the period of the Judges.

SISTER

In the Scriptures the term is applied to full sisters and to half sisters, those having the same father but different mothers (Gen. 34:1, 27; 1 Chron. 3:1-9), or the same mother but different fathers, as in the case of the sisters of Jesus. (Matt. 13:55, 56, Mark 6:3) Adam’s sons obviously married their sisters, since all humankind sprang from Adam and Eve. (Gen. 3:20; 5:4) (Adam’s wife Eve, as ‘bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh,’ was more closely related than a sister. [Gen. 2:22-24]) There was no stigma attached to marriage to sisters or half sisters. The account reports that more than two thousand years later, Abraham married Sarah his half sister. (Gen. 20:2, 12) The Mosaic law, some 430 years later, however, forbade such unions as incestuous. (Lev. 18:9, 11; 20:17) Doubtless, as the human race deviated farther from Adam’s original perfection, the laws of heredity made it become detrimental for closely related persons to marry.

“Sister” in its broader usage included fellow countrywomen of a nation. (Num. 25:17, 18) Nations or cities that had a close relationship or that carried on similar moral practices were likened to sisters.—Jer. 3:7-10; Ezek. 16:46, 48, 49, 55; 23:32, 33.

The Hebrew word for sister (ʼa·hhohthʹ) is translated “the other” when describing the placing of objects in relationship to corresponding pieces in the tabernacle and in Ezekiel’s visions.—Ex. 26:3, 5, 6, 17; Ezek. 1:9, 23; 3:13.

IN THE CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION

Jesus taught that spiritual relationships take priority over fleshly ones. Those women who did his Father’s will were ‘sisters’ held in higher regard than mere fleshly relations. (Matt. 12:50; Mark 3:34, 35) One willing to sever earthly ties, if necessary to do so for the sake of the Kingdom, will have a “hundredfold” of “sisters” and other ‘family’ relations now, plus “everlasting life” in the future. (Matt. 19:29; Mark 10:29, 30; Luke 14:26) Women in the Christian congregation are called sisters, in a spiritual sense.—Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 7:15; 9:5; Jas. 2:15.

FIGURATIVE USE

Closeness to wisdom is encouraged by the wise writer Solomon when he stresses the importance of Jehovah’s commandments. He says: “Say to wisdom: ‘You are my sister’; and may you call understanding itself ‘Kinswoman.’”—Prov. 7:4.

SISTRUM

[Heb., m^ena·ʽan·ʽimʹ (plural), variously translated as “castanets” (AT, JB), “bells” (Le) and “cornets” (AV, Dy, Yg)].

The Hebrew word occurs but once in Scripture and seems to be derived from a root meaning “to quiver, to be shaken.” (2 Sam. 6:5) Since the sistrum is characteristically played in this manner, being, as it were, a “musical rattle,” many lexicographers and music authorities favor this rendering, one that has also been adopted by a number of Bible translators.—Da; NW; Ro; Vg.

The sistrum generally consisted of a small oval metal frame attached to a handle. The complete instrument varied from eight to eighteen inches (about 20 to 46 centimeters) in length, according to extant ancient specimens as well as Egyptian and other monumental representations. The frame loosely held a small number of metal crossbars that, when shaken, produced sharp, ringing sounds. The horizontal bars may have been of differing lengths so as to produce a series of tones. Another type of sistrum was equipped with rings on the bars, and these rings jingled when agitated. Although its single Biblical appearance is in the description of a great celebration, traditional Jewish sources state that the sistrum was played on sad occasions as well.

SITHRI

(Sithʹri) [perhaps, (Jehovah) concealed].

A Levite living during the Israelite slavery in Egypt; son of Uzziel and cousin of Moses.—Ex. 6:18, 20, 22.

SITNAH

(Sitʹnah) [accusation].

A well that Isaac’s servants dug in the vicinity of Gerar and Rehoboth. It was named Sitnah because of their dispute over it with the shepherds of Gerar. Sitnah’s exact location is not known. (Gen. 26:19-22) However, perhaps it was somewhere in Wadi Shutnet er-Ruheibeh, about eighteen miles (29 kilometers) SW of Beer-sheba. This wadi’s name bears a similarity to both Sitnah and Rehoboth.

SIVAN

(Siʹvan).

The postexilic name of the third Jewish lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the ninth of the secular calendar. (Esther 8:9; 1 Chron. 27:5; 2 Chron. 31:7) It corresponds to part of May and part of June. The meaning of the name is uncertain.

Sivan comes at the end of the spring when the intense heat of summer is approaching; this is mentioned by Josephus in describing a slaughter of Samaritans by the Roman army in that month. (Wars of the Jews, Book III, chap. VII, par. 32) This was the time of the wheat harvest and also the early part of the dry season, which would continue until October or the lunar month of Bul. (Ex. 34:22; Prov. 26:1) This was doubtless the month when the prophet Samuel prayed to Jehovah and an unseasonal rainstorm occurred, causing great fear among the people. (1 Sam. 12:16-19) By now the “early figs” that came on the trees toward the close of the winter months