• Zoar
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • Bela was Zoar’s earlier name. In Abraham’s day, it was ruled by a king who rebelled with the four others of the District after twelve years of domination by Chedorlaomer, only to be defeated by the Elamiate monarch and his three allies. (Gen. 14:1-11) When Jehovah was about to destroy Sodom, Lot requested and received permission to flee from there to Zoar, and this city was spared. (Gen. 19:18-25) Fear later caused him and his two daughters to leave Zoar and become cave dwellers in the nearby mountainous region.—Gen. 19:30.

      It was foretold that when catastrophe befell Moab, its runaways would flee to Zoar, and that the cry over the nation’s devastation would be heard “from Zoar clear to Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah,” perhaps indicating that Zoar was then a Moabite city. (Isa. 15:5; Jer. 48:34) The Septuagint and certain modern translations (AT, JB, NE [1970 ed.], RS) mention Zoar (Zogora) at Jeremiah 48:4 (31:4, LXX, Bagster), but the Hebrew Masoretic text there refers instead to “her little ones.” (NW, JP, Le, Ro) Zoar marked the extreme S point that Moses saw when viewing the land from Mount Nebo. (Deut. 34:1-3) Apparently the city was in or near Moab, close to the Moabite mountainous region and somewhere SE of the Dead Sea. (Compare Genesis 19:17-22, 30, 37.) Some scholars would place Zoar N of the Dead Sea, others on the el-Lisan Peninsula, or just S or W of the S end of the sea. In the Middle Ages the name was linked with an important site between Jerusalem and Elath. Today, however, many believe that the original Zoar and the other “cities of the District” lie beneath the waters of the S portion of the Dead Sea.—Gen. 13:12.

  • Zobah
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZOBAH

      (Zoʹbah).

      A Syrian (Aramaean) kingdom otherwise known as Aram-Zobah. (Psalm 60, superscription) One of its kings was Hadadezer. (1 Ki. 11:23) The compound form “Hamath-zobah” may designate adjoining kingdoms named Hamath and Zobah. (2 Chron. 8:3) Zobah seems to have been located N of Damascus with a domain extending to the region of Hamath on the N and to the river Euphrates on the E.—2 Sam. 8:3.

      King Saul warred against the kings of Zobah. (1 Sam. 14:47) The Ammonites later hired Syrians of Zobah and other troops to fight against David, but all were defeated by his army. (2 Sam. 10:6-19; 1 Chron. 19:6-19) It was likely in this war that David vanquished and took spoil from Zobah’s King Hadadezer, including much copper (eventually used in temple construction) from his cities Betah (apparently also named Tibhath) and Berothai (Cun?). (2 Sam. 8:3-12; 1 Chron. 18:3-9) One of the mighty men of David’s military forces was Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah.—2 Sam. 23:8, 36; see ARAM No. 5; HADADEZER.

  • Zodiac
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZODIAC

      Concerning King Josiah of Judah, 2 Kings 23:5 says: “And he put out of business the foreign-god priests, whom the kings of Judah had put in that they might make sacrificial smoke on the high places in the cities of Judah and the surroundings of Jerusalem, and also those making sacrificial smoke to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations of the zodiac and to all the army of the heavens.” The expression here rendered “constellations of the zodiac” comes from the Hebrew word maz·za·lohthʹ, which occurs but once in the Bible, although the word Maz·za·rohthʹ found at Job 38:32 may be related. It is the context that helps make clear its meaning.

      The discovery of what may be called the zodiacal zone is generally credited to the early Babylonians. They doubtless observed the apparent yearly path of the sun among the stars, which path is now known as the ecliptic. Within a zone 16 degrees wide, extending 8 degrees on each side of the ecliptic, is the area called the zodiac. The early astronomers could note that within this zone or belt lie the apparent paths of the sun, moon and major planets, as viewed from the earth. It was not until the second century B.C.E., however, that a Greek astronomer divided the zodiac into twelve equal parts of thirty degrees each, and these parts came to be called the “signs of the zodiac” and were named after the related constellations. The word “zodiac” is from the Greek and means “circle of animals,” since the zodiac’s twelve constellations originally were all designated by the names of animal or marine life.

      These signs today do not resemble the constellations after which they were originally named. This is due to what is known as the precession of the equinoxes, which results in a gradual westward shift by the constellations of one degree every seventy years in a cycle that is said to take 25,800 years to complete. Thus, the sign of Aries has, in the past 2,000 years, moved backward 30 degrees, into the sign Pisces, the constellation W of Aries.

      CONNECTION WITH ASTROLOGY

      The zodiacal constellations were made objects of false worship from early Mesopotamian times onward. Certain qualities were attributed to each of the different constellations and these were then used in astrological predictions based on the particular position or relationship of the celestial bodies to the signs of the zodiac at any given time. As shown by the text at 2 Kings 23:5, such use of astrology was introduced into Judah by foreign-god priests whom certain kings had brought into the country. Jehovah God long before had prohibited such star worship on penalty of death. (Deut. 17:2-7) While the constellations mentioned at Job 9:9; 38:31, 32 and Amos 5:8 doubtless figure among those of the zodiacal zone, yet these texts make plain that such celestial bodies are but the creation of Jehovah God and all subject to his divine laws and statutes.

      Astrology was a predominant facet of Babylonian worship. The predictions based on the zodiac by her astrologers, however, did not save Babylon from destruction, even as the prophet Isaiah had accurately forewarned.—Isa. 47:12-15; see ASTROLOGERS.

      In modem times the zodiacal signs continue to play an important part in the worship of many peoples. Interestingly, the signs of the zodiac found their way into some of the religious cathedrals of Christendom and can today be seen in such places as the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, as well as on the cathedrals of Amiens and Chartres, France.

  • Zoheleth
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZOHELETH

      (Zoʹhe·leth) [gliding, or, serpent].

      A stone beside En-rogel; its location is otherwise unknown. Near “the stone of Zoheleth” (or, “the Gliding Stone”) Adonijah did sacrificing and was proclaimed king by many of Israel’s prominent men. However, his presumptuous attempt to succeed David to the throne was foiled.—1 Ki. 1:9, 10, 25, 49, 50.