Hebrew word · H8656

תִּרְצָה

tirtzah

Tirzah

A place name, most likely from the root רצה (r-ts-h), 'to be pleased with, accept with favour'. So: 'pleasantness, delight'. It is also a personal or clan name: Tirzah is one of the five daughters of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Joshua 17:3).

Appears 18 times in 17 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Tirzah = "favourable"

one of the kingdoms on the west of the Jordan conquered by Joshua and the Israelites

a Canaanite city, later capital of the northern kingdom of Israel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 12:24

Range of meaning

A place name, most likely from the root רצה (r-ts-h), 'to be pleased with, accept with favour'. So: 'pleasantness, delight'. It is also a personal or clan name: Tirzah is one of the five daughters of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Joshua 17:3).

Against the English

English versions simply transliterate it, which is right. What English readers miss is that the name means something like 'Delight', and that ancient hearers knew the town as the later royal city.

Used elsewhere in the period

Tirzah was the royal seat of the northern kingdom from Jeroboam's time (1 Kings 14:17) through Baasha, Elah and Zimri. Omri reigned there six years before moving the capital to Samaria (1 Kings 15:21, 33; 16:6–24). Menahem came from Tirzah (2 Kings 15:14, 16). Song of Songs 6:4 compares the beloved to it: 'beautiful as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem', with the northern and southern royal cities side by side. Roland de Vaux excavated the most likely site, Tell el-Far'ah (North), between 1946 and 1960. Several Manasseh clan names in Numbers 26 (Hepher, Shechem, Shemida, Noah, Hoglah) also appear as district names in the Samaria ostraca, administrative notes written on pottery in the 8th century BC. This suggests Tirzah too was both a clan name and a place name in the region.

From the study of Joshua 17:3

Range of meaning

Women's names that also appear as place or district names in Manasseh's hill country.

Against the English

English readers take them as personal names only. 'Noah' in particular gets mistaken for the flood hero.

How it drifted

The names were transliterated without signalling the spelling difference (ayin vs. chet in Noah) or the geographic overlap.

Used elsewhere in the period

Tirzah is a city (Josh 12:24; 1 Kgs 14:17; Song 6:4). The 8th-century BCE Samaria ostraca (receipts for wine and oil) name districts including Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Shemida, Hoglah and Noah, which matches the clans of Josh 17:2-3.

From the study of Song of Songs 6:4

Range of meaning

(1) A city in the hill country of Manasseh, northeast of modern Nablus, usually identified with Tell el-Far'ah (North). (2) A woman's name: one of the daughters of Zelophehad (Num 26:33; 27:1). The name looks like a noun from rāṣâ, 'to be pleased with, take delight in', so it means roughly 'Pleasantness, Delight'.

Against the English

All the English versions keep the place name. Readers who don't know it hear only an obscure word, and both the city's fame and the 'delight' sound of the name are lost. NLT expands it to make clear that Tirzah is a lovely city.

Used elsewhere in the period

It appears as a Canaanite royal city in Joshua 12:24. It was the royal seat of the northern kingdom under Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 14:17), Baasha, Elah and Zimri (1 Kgs 15:21, 33; 16:6–18). Omri reigned there six years before founding Samaria, around 880 BCE (1 Kgs 16:23–24). Menahem set out from Tirzah to seize the throne (2 Kgs 15:14). French excavations under Roland de Vaux at Tell el-Far'ah uncovered a fortified Iron Age town. The Greek Septuagint (LXX) translated the word as a common noun, eudokia, 'good pleasure'. The Latin Vulgate likewise has suavis, 'sweet', instead of a place name.

Where it appears

Numbers · 3

  1. Numbers 26:33 וְתִרְצָֽה׃ and Tirzah

    Now Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons but only daughters. The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

  2. Numbers 27:1 וְתִרְצָֽה׃ and Tirzah

    Now the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. These were the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They approached

  3. Numbers 36:11 תִרְצָ֗ה Tirzah

    Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 12:24 תִּרְצָ֖ה Tirzah

    and the king of Tirzah, one. So there were thirty-one kings in all.

    Here: A town in the central hill country northeast of Shechem. It is usually identified with Tell el-Far'ah (North). The name most likely comes from the root r-ts-h, 'to be pleased, take delight', so it means something like 'Pleasant' or 'Delightful'. Later it became the first capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

  2. Joshua 17:3 וְתִרְצָֽה׃ and Tirzah

    But Zelophehad son of Hepher (the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh) had no sons but only daughters. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

    Here: From a root meaning 'be pleasing'. Also the name of a major town in Manasseh's hill country, later the first capital of the northern kingdom (1 Kgs 15:21, 33).

1 Kings · 10

  1. 1 Kings 14:17 תִרְצָ֑תָה Tirzah towards

    Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and departed for Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

  2. 1 Kings 15:21 בְּתִרְצָֽה׃ in Tirzah

    When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah.

  3. 1 Kings 15:33 בְּתִרְצָ֔ה in Tirzah

    In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah twenty-four years.

  4. 1 Kings 16:6 בְּתִרְצָ֑ה in Tirzah

    And Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah reigned in his place.

  5. 1 Kings 16:8 בְּתִרְצָ֖ה in Tirzah

    In the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.

  6. 1 Kings 16:9 בְתִרְצָה֙ בְּתִרְצָֽה׃ in Tirzah

    However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.

    Here: Tirzah was the royal city of the northern kingdom before Samaria was built (v. 24).

  7. 1 Kings 16:15 בְּתִרְצָ֑ה in Tirzah

    In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon of the Philistines,

  8. 1 Kings 16:17 תִּרְצָֽה׃ Tirzah

    Then Omri and all the Israelites marched up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.

  9. 1 Kings 16:23 בְּתִרְצָ֖ה in Tirzah

    In the thirty-first year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.

2 Kings · 2

  1. 2 Kings 15:14 מִתִּרְצָ֗ה from Tirzah

    Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah to Samaria, struck down and killed Shallum son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.

  2. 2 Kings 15:16 מִתִּרְצָ֔ה from Tirzah

    At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 6:4 כְּתִרְצָ֔ה like Tirzah

    You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.

    Here: 'Like' (the prefix kə-) plus Tirzah, an old and beautiful city that was the first royal capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The name also sounds like the verb 'to delight in, be pleased with' (rāṣâ), so a Hebrew ear would hear 'like Delightful' underneath the place name.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.