CINXE.COM

<!doctype html> <html lang="en" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Article"> <head> <title>Who/what was Tirzah in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org</title> <META name="keywords" itemprop="keywords" content="Tirzah in the Bible"><META name="description" itemprop="description" property="og:description" content="Who/what was Tirzah in the Bible? Is Tirzah both a person and a place in the Bible?"> <meta charset="utf-8"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no"> <link rel="image_src" itemprop="image" href="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/GQlogo.png"><link rel="canonical" itemprop="url mainEntityOfPage" href="https://www.gotquestions.org/Tirzah-in-the-Bible.html"> <meta itemprop="author" content="GotQuestions.org"> <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2017-04-26"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/OG/Tirzah-in-the-Bible.jpg"> <meta property="og:site_name" content="GotQuestions.org"> <meta property="og:type" content="article"> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.gotquestions.org/Tirzah-in-the-Bible.html"> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-M7EVHFDMSZ"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-M7EVHFDMSZ'); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">  <script type="module" src="/components/header-element-unified.js"></script> <script type="module" src="/components/footer-element-unified.js" defer></script> <script src="/components/unified-script.js" defer></script> <link rel="preload" href="/components/unified-style.css" as="style"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/components/unified-style.css"> </head> <body data-site-theme="light"> <div class="fixed-button settings box-shadow"><img src="img/cogwheel.svg" alt="settings icon" onclick="settingsMenu(this)"></div> <div class="fixed-button sharebutton box-shadow"><img src="img/share.svg" alt="share icon" onclick="shareMenu(this)"></div> <header-element></header-element> <div id="modals"> <ul class="settings-menu modal-menu box-shadow"> <li> <div class="toggle-wrap"> <span>Light</span><input type="checkbox" checked id="toggle" class="checkbox" onclick="toggleTheme(this)" /><label for="toggle" class="switch"></label><span>Dark</span> </div> </li> <li><div id="bibleRefLinkSettings"><label for="bibleRefLinkVersion">Bible Version</label><select id="bibleRefLinkVersion" name="bibleRefLinkVersion" onchange="changeVersion();BibleRefLink.brlSavePrefs();"><option value="ESV">ESV</option><option value="CSB">CSB</option><option value="KJV">KJV</option><option value="NASB">NASB</option><option value="NIV" selected="selected">NIV</option><option value="NKJV">NKJV</option><option value="NLT">NLT</option></select></div></li> <li><label for="font">Font Family</label><select name="font" id="font" onchange="changeFont()"><option value="system-ui">Default</option><option value="Arial">Arial</option><option value="Verdana">Verdana</option><option value="Helvetica">Helvetica</option><option value="Tahoma">Tahoma</option><option value="Georgia">Georgia</option><option value="Times New Roman">Times New Roman</option></select></li> <li><label for="lineheight">Line Height</label><select name="lineheight" id="lineheight" onchange="changeLineHeight()"><option value="1.4">Default</option><option value="1">1.0</option><option value="1.2">1.2</option><option value="1.5">1.5</option><option value="2">2</option></select></li> <li><label for="fontsize">Font Size</label><select name="fontsize" id="fontsize" onchange="changeFontSize()"><option value="1">Default</option><option value="1">1.0</option><option value="1.2">1.2</option><option value="1.5">1.5</option><option value="2">2</option></select></li> </ul> <ul class="final-menu modal-menu box-shadow"> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.gotquestions.org/" class="fb"><img src="img/logo-fb-simple.svg" alt="Facebook icon">Facebook</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/share?url=https://www.gotquestions.org/" class="tw"><img src="img/logo-twitter.svg" alt="Twitter icon">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://www.gotquestions.org/" class="pi"><img src="img/logo-pinterest.svg" alt="Pinterest icon">Pinterest</a></li> <li><a class="SendEmail" href=""><img src="img/letter.svg" alt="Email icon">Email</a></li> <li class="mobile-show"><a class="SendSMS" href=""><img src="img/sms-icon.svg" alt="SMS icon">Text/SMS</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="featured gradient-to-tr" style="--color-start: var(--bgcolor-featured-start); --color-end: var(--bgcolor-featured-end)"> <div class="featured-left"> <h5>Find Out</h5> <h4><a href="going-to-heaven.html">How to go to heaven</a></h4> <h4><a href="get-right-with-God.html">How to get right with God</a></h4> </div> <div class="featured-right"> <div class="desktop-hide gq-YT"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/gotquestionsorg" target="_blank"><img src="img/GQ-YT.png"></a></div> </div> </div> <main><div class="breadcrumb-wrapper"> <span class="breadcrumb" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList"><span itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="https://www.gotquestions.org"><span itemprop="name"><span class="home-icon"></span>Home</span></a><meta itemprop="position" content="1"></span> <span class="chevron-right"></span> <span itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="https://www.gotquestions.org/content.html"><span itemprop="name">Content Index</span></a><meta itemprop="position" content="2"></span> <span class="chevron-right"></span> <span itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="https://www.gotquestions.org/content_people.html"><span itemprop="name">People in the Bible</span></a><meta itemprop="position" content="3"></span> <span class="chevron-right"></span> <span itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="https://www.gotquestions.org/content_people_OT-individuals.html"><span itemprop="name">Old Testament Individuals</span></a><meta itemprop="position" content="4"></span> <span class="chevron-right"></span> Tirzah</span></div> <section class="content-wrap gradient-to-b" style="--color-start: var(--bgcolor-content-start); --color-end: var(--bgcolor-content-end);" ><div class="content"> <div class="label gradient-to-tr" style="--color-start: #96445a; --color-end: #6f637e;">Question</div> <div class="sponsor-sidebar"><div class="desktop-show" align="center"><div class="adManager-placeholder"></div></div></div> <h1><span itemprop="name headline" property="og:title">Who/what was Tirzah in the Bible?</span></h1> <div class="actions-wrap"><div class="actions"> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="INTL/Tirzah-in-the-Bible.html" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'intl'});"><img src="img/translate-icon.svg" alt="translate"></a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://printer.gotquestions.net/GeneratePF?articleId=21380" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'print'});"><img src="img/print.svg" class="questionInteract" alt="Tirzah in the Bible"></a> </div></div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> <div class="label gradient-to-tr" style="--color-start: #29a699; --color-end: #749c5a;">Answer</div><br><br> Tirzah in the Bible is 1) the name of a city that Joshua conquered (Joshua 12:24), and 2) the name of a woman from the <a href="tribe-of-Manasseh.html">tribe of Manasseh</a> who was instrumental in clarifying a law governing family inheritances (Numbers 26:33; Joshua 17:3).<br><br> In Joshua chapter 12, we learn of the city of Tirzah, an ancient Canaanite city west of the Jordan River, allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh. Tirzah was conquered by Joshua (Joshua 12:24). Tirzah became the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel from the time of Jeroboam I until the reign of <a href="King-Omri.html">Omri</a>. It was Omri who moved the capital to Samaria (1 Kings 16:23).<br><br> There aren’t many references to the city of Tirzah in the Bible, but we do know a few things about it. Tirzah was where Jeroboam’s son died. Also Baasha, Elah, and Zimri ruled Israel from Tirzah (1 Kings 14:17; 15:33; 16:6, 15). The city is compared to a beautiful young woman in Song of Solomon 6:4, “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.”<br><br> The other Tirzah, a <a href="daughters-of-Zelophehad.html">daughter of Zelophehad</a>, joined her four sisters and came to Moses with a concern over how the Promised Land was to be divided to their family. In Numbers 26:52–56, Moses was given instructions from the Lord on how to divide up the land for inheritance, but these sisters had a unique situation in that they had no male relatives to maintain the inheritance for them (verse 33). With no father and no brothers to inherit a portion of the land, the daughters of Zelophehad would be left destitute. In Numbers 27:1–4 Tirzah and her sisters proposed to Moses that they be allowed to inherit their father’s portion of the land. God ruled in favor of the daughters. They could inherit their father’s portion of the land as a way to provide for themselves and preserve the memory of their father (verses 5 –11).<br><br> Later, in Numbers 36, we once again hear about the daughters of Zelophehad. This time it is in relation to whom they could marry. A potential problem loomed: if Tirzah and her sisters, who were now landowners, married men outside their tribe, they would join their husbands’ tribes and take their father’s property with them. As the sisters married men from other tribes, the property allotted to Manasseh, the tribe of Zelophehad, would be diminished (Numbers 36:1–3). God instructed that the daughters of Zelophehad could marry anyone they wanted <em>within</em> their father’s tribal clan. The land promised to Zelophehad could not be parceled out to other tribes.<br><br> The name <em>Tirzah</em> means “she is my delight.” Throughout the Bible, God shows special concern for the widow and the orphan. This was certainly the case with Tirzah and the other daughters of Zelophehad.<br><br> </div> <section class="homepage-sponsor desktop-hide"> <div class="desktop-hide" align="center"><div class="adManager-placeholder-mobile"></div></div> </section> <div class="related resources"><h4>For Further Study</h4> <a target="_blank" rel="sponsored noopener" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'amazon'});" href="https://amzn.to/3XXF14B">The Quest Study Bible</a><br><br> <a target="_blank" rel="sponsored noopener" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'logos'});" href="https://www.logos.com/?utm_campaign=logossubxlaunch-phase1&utm_source=gotquestions&utm_medium=advertising_display&utm_content=logossubxlaunch-phase1-gtlink">More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free!</a> </div> <div class="related topics"><h4>Related Articles</h4> <a href="Aaron-rod.html">What was the significance of Aaron’s rod?</a><br><br> <a href="Christian-archaeology.html">Christian archeology – why is it important?</a><br><br> <a href="Nadab-and-Abihu.html">Who were Nadab and Abihu?</a><br><br> <a href="Shadrach-Meshach-Abednego.html">What should we learn from the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?</a><br><br> <a href="wilderness-wandering.html">Why was Israel cursed with forty years of wilderness wandering?</a> </div> <center><strong class="return">Return to:<br><br> <a class="button-link box-shadow" href="questions_Bible-people.html">Questions about People in the Bible</a><br><br> Who/what was Tirzah in the Bible?</strong></center> </div> </section> <section class="subscribe gradient-to-br" style="--color-start: #153c59; --color-end: #1b537c"> <div class="grid"> <div class="gradient-to-br box-shadow" style="--color-start: #2c6482; --color-end: #64547b"> <h5>Subscribe to the</h5> <h3>Question of the Week</h3> <p>Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox!</p> <iframe src="scommon/qotw.htm" title="question of the week" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe> </div></div> </section> </main> <footer-element></footer-element> <center> <div itemprop="dateModified" content="2022-01-04">This page last updated: January 4, 2022</div></center> <script src="scripts-2025.js"></script> <div style="display: none;" itemprop="publisher" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization"><meta itemprop="name" content="GotQuestions.org"><div itemprop="logo" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject"> <img src="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/GQlogo.png"><meta itemprop="url" content="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/GQlogo.png"><meta itemprop="width" content="400"><meta itemprop="height" content="79"> </div></div> </body> </html>