The Woman Who
Built Three Cities and Blessed Her Family
Al Bireh Beit ‘Ur al-Foqa ,
probable remains of one of Sheerah’s cities, Welcome to Palestine,
https://www.welcometopalestine.com/destinations/ramallah-al-bireh/beit-ur-al-foqa/
For ancient Jews
in exile, 1 Chronicles was eye-opening. They could search its lists and locate
their ancestors and, thereby, discover their legitimate places in their
original homeland. This made the prospect of returning from the land of
captivity to their fabled land of origin more doable and less frightening. The
book was an empowering gift that must have taken its author an enormous amount
of arduous labor to organize and copy from ancient lists on scrolls. To the
exiles, it was a miracle.
Today, however,
judging by our students and parishioners’ responses, stumbling through these
lists is one of the most stultifying ordeals for even the most devout of us
daily devotional devotees. Prospecting through these genealogies is exhausting.
The lists of incomprehensible names keep piling up around us. To many modern
readers, we might feel as though we were poking through a pile of decaying
ruins, dusty, archaic, and irrelevant to our lives. By 1 Chronicles 7:20, we trek
into the genealogy of Ephraim, Joseph’s younger boy, the one who received the
blessing which would normally have been given to his elder brother. Ephraim
means “fruitfulness,” so he was set for a blessing. And, sure enough, in his
family’s history we come upon an artifact worth picking up and dusting off. It’s
a nugget of joy and inspiration, but, to our surprise, it’s embedded not in an
account of great joy but one of sadness. Apparently, events had not been
unfolding in the way a family with a blessing expected. We get our first
inkling that things are not going well, when we read that Ephraim named his own
son Shuthelah, which means “discord.”[1] And that name does not go
away, for we see it repeated some six generations later, indicating things were
still not going well, with yet another child named for dissension.
How tough were
events going for Ephraim’s descendants? The lowest point hits with a familial
catastrophe: the sudden death of the two sons of a later Ephraim, named for his
great ancestor. These two young men, Ezer and Elead, are murdered in an
incident at Gath, far down in the southeast corner of the promised land, near
the Negeb wilderness. The killings were done, we are told in 1 Chronicles 7:21,
by the residents of Gath because Ezer and Elead “came to seize [or to capture,
conquer, take away[2]] their
cattle [or possessions or property].”
This brief
description isn’t much to go on, so it’s not completely clear if Ezer and
Elead, and anyone who went with them, went down to retrieve their own cattle,
or if the strong word choice specifies they had gone to Gath to heist some
cattle and build up their own herd. Most translations, including the Jewish
Publication Society of America’s The Holy Scriptures according to the
Masoretic Text, seem to opt for the latter: that these two young
guys, bereft of the lesson my own long distant future generation would learn
from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans that no happy trails were waiting for rustlers who
set out for the wild territory of a place like Gath to see what they could
pilfer, did just that and the whole venture went fatally awry.
What these young
bucks apparently needed to have taken into account was that Gath was a
Philistine city that had been populated by the giant Anakim (Josh 11:22).[3] Maybe Joshua had wiped out
the giants in his day, but, as Goliath would later reveal, there were still enough
large opponents around.[4] But caution is not always
in the mind of the young. If they had thought this through, they might have opted
for saving up their earnings and bartering to buy some livestock. But when we’re
young and daring, most of us want what we want NOW. We’re in a hurry. In the
case of Ezer and Elead, setting out on a life of crime can come to a quick ambush.
As they, we don’t always think of the lasting impact on those who love us, for
this catastrophe left permanent heartache behind.[5]
1
Chronicles 7:22 tells us their tragic demise was devastating for their Dad. He
was so distraught that he mourned for a long time, so long that his brothers
gathered to comfort him. And then, as other generations came, the family finally
received a blessing. And, along with it, came a mood change from a stand-out
heroine who gained renown for her exploits and lifted her family up to honor. This
was the niece her uncles had not lived to meet: a young, ambitious woman named Sh’ēērah.
We are told in 1 Chronicles 7:24, “Sheerah built (the word banah also means
“form, develop, erect, to cover with buildings, to repair, to rebuild”)[6]
the house (or “tent or mansion”) of Horon, the lower and the upper, and Uzzen-sheerah.”
Christine Anslow in The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary puts it well when she
acknowledges “Sheerah” as one “who had a talent for city building.”[7]
This observation agrees with what we read in the Bible text. We also realize Sheerah
must have done a solid job, when we read C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch’s note,
“Beth-horon the nether and the upper” are “the present Beit-Ur-Foka and Tachta.”[8]
When we punch up these time-altered names, we discover, “Beit ‘Ur al-Foqa is
the smaller of the two Beit ‘Ur villages, which crown adjacent
hilltops. The village, 14 km east of Ramallah, is a charming, peaceful
place whose tranquillity is interrupted by the main Israeli highway that runs
through the valley.”[9]
These towns, however, were not always so peaceful,
as we read in Joshua 10:10. Beth-horon, located on an ascent, was a Canaanite
city under attack by Amorites for making peace with Joshua, who counterattacked
and defeated the besieging soldiers when God rained deadly hailstones upon them
(v. 11). Keil and Delitzsch observe further “Uzzen-sherah” is “a place not
elsewhere referred to,[10] which she probably
founded, and which was called after her.” They add, “The
building of the two Beth-horons is merely an enlarging and fortifying of these
towns. Sherah was probably an heiress, who had received these places as her
inheritance, and caused them to be enlarged by her family.”[11] Joan Comay takes this final
speculation a bit further when she writes, “her descendants built the towns of
Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah,”[12], leaving Sheerah out of
the hands-on equation entirely. But the Masoretic text does not do this. It
gives her direct credit. If we are uncertain if women in Old Testament times
ever got down and gritty moving stone and building fortifications, we have only
to look at Nehemiah 3:12 to discover that one of the area rulers of Jerusalem,
Shallum with his daughters, repaired the section of the wall by their dwelling.
Sheerah seems to me to have been this kind of get-involved architect.
A helpful discussion that is full of
insight has been provided for us in the journal Pricilla Papers by Eric E. Richter, who serves as editor for Asociación Casa
Editora Sudamericana (South American Publishing House) in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. Here is one example of the provocative observations that he makes: “The fact that she had a brother shows that the construction
of these cities was not a necessity due to a lack of male leadership. Rather,
this achievement seems to be mentioned to highlight her achievements in the
face of her brother’s lack of initiative or success.” And here is another: “Controlling
the cities of Beth-horon carried several substantial advantages. Being an
important ancient route, it allowed Sheerah to protect the tribe of Ephraim
from possible attacks from the east (as happened later, in Saul’s time, 1 Sam
13:17–18). In addition, because this was an important trade route, it
guaranteed its ruler a constant source of income. It was also the easiest route
to access the thriving seaports of Lebanon from the direction of Jerusalem and
the prosperous Jordan Valley.12 The fact that Sheerah controlled
this vital road undoubtedly secured for her an important social position among
the leaders of her tribe. This may explain why she is mentioned so prominently
in Ephraim’s genealogy.[13]
In addition, what strikes me is that her
accomplishments not only changed her family’s blight by bleaching it out with an
effective and lasting honoring light, but, as we read the rest of this
genealogy after her municipal renovations and founding are noted, we see a
change in what her descendants achieved.
We notice no towns are named before Sheerah’s
building projects are celebrated. Therefore, a possibility is that, up until
Sheerah’s game-changing actions, her family may have been comprised of nomadic
herders who lived in tents and tended their flocks. After Sheerah, however, we
read a continuing list of generations but are now told that these descendants lived
and stored their belongings in Beth-el, and surrounding towns, Naaran to the
east and Gezer to the west, and their towns, Shechem and the towns around it, Aiah with its
towns, and they spread out along the borders of Ephraim’s brother Manasseh’s tribe,
in Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and the towns around it, Megiddo and
surrounding towns, and Dor and those settlements related to it (1 Chron
7:25-29). Sheerah’s descendants had become city-dwellers.
So, what can we learn from this amazing woman and
her energetic activities that brought enough fame and blessing to her family to
be noted in the Bible and affect the lifestyle or her descendants and the scope
of what these descendants were inspired to achieve?
1) Never
let yourself be locked into the trap of thinking that adversity means you
cannot rise above your circumstances. Sheerah was a woman in a patriarchal time
from a family depressed by loss, but she obviously did not let violence or prejudice
stop her from accomplishing worthwhile goals. If God has gifted us in
accomplishing something, we should follow Sheerah’s example and not hesitate to
use our gifts.
2) Creating
something positive is better than doing something negative. We know Sheerah’s
name and what she achieved. We don’t know a single name of the men of Gath who
killed her uncles, and all we know about her uncles, besides their names, is
that they were killed. If they had built something instead of pursuing risky
behavior whether to redeem their own property or heist someone else’s, they
would have ultimately given their parents joy rather than have broken their
hearts.
3) If
the list of what she did is chronological, Sheerah refurbished two cities
before she tackled founding her own. Making something that benefits the welfare
of others is always a good idea of the best route to travel. It’s the main road
to success. And, as we set out on it, we should never avoid starting small and never
rush precariously to get big. If what we’re doing pleases God and we put the
time and effort into it, God may help it flourish. While we may not know what
happened to Sheerah’s third building project, if two out of three of her
building efforts actually are still existing today, thousands of years later, that’s
pretty good!
4) Parents
can never tell which of their children God will raise up to do great things for
God their family. Therefore, we should encourage them all – early and late
bloomers alike.
5) Coping
with loss is very difficult – especially the loss of children. I come from a
family that lost a child full of wonder and full of promise and full of the
love of God. Sadly, a series of miscarriages and still-borns never allowed her
to be replaced. With her loss, the sunshine was gone from our home. None of us
could bring it back to the degree she provided it. The effects of the loss
plagued my parents until they died. Grief is part of our lives in a fallen
world. Ephraim’s brothers knew that sorrow is not necessarily a transitory
experience. They gathered and comforted their brother.
What I’ve learned now after fifty-one
years of ordained ministry is that caring silence for sufferers is always the
best approach. They need to talk and we need to listen to their pain. We need
to be sensitive and caring with those who lose family members and not insist on
a timetable for their grief. Sorrow is individual. It takes as long as it
takes. We can fix a lot, but we can’t mend every broken heart. For some, the
only balm of Gilead that will be applied is when sufferers are gathered up in
the everlasting arms of our Lord God. So constant prayer interceding for all is
imperative.
6) Finally,
as amazing as it may seem, we modern gentile Christians can even find kernels
of interesting and edifying data in the Bible’s chronology lists! So, keep
plowing through them, as our Messianic Jewish sisters and brothers do.
In summary, here
is a takeaway from the Bible’s verse about Sheerah: Sheerah is an accomplished
woman who builds and refurbishes cities and prosperity from God’s blessing
follows her exploits. After the Scripture highlights the cities she reclaims or
founds, the rest of the list of the line of Ephraim is filled with people and
their towns and no more sad accounts are told. Honestly, when we think about
it, this may be among the best results any of us can expect to achieve on earth…
Bill
[1]The
meanings of the names are listed alphabetically in June Comay, Who’s Who in the Old Testament together with
the Apocrypha (New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 356.
[2] “Lakeh”
in Karl Feyerabend, Langenscheidt Pocket Hebrew Dictionary to the Old
Testament (New York: McGraw Hill, 1960), 160.
[3]
W.F. Stinespring, “Gath” in The Interpreter’s
Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1962/1980), vol 2, 355.
[4]
Another seven-and-a-half-foot giant warrior was killed by one of David’s
“mighty men” in 1st Chronicles 11:23, not to mention the report of
the spies to Moses that Canaan was populated by descendants of the Anakim (Num.
13: 28) and they looked like grasshoppers against these giants (Num. 13:33).
[5] Some
commentators believe with Matthew Henry, “It is uncertain who are the
aggressors here,” but decide, as he does, “I rather think that the men of Gath
came down upon the Ephraimites, because the Israelites in Egypt were shepherds,
not soldiers abounding in cattle of their own, and therefore were not likely to
venture their lives for their neighbors’ cattle.” Matthew Henry, Commentary
on the Whole Bible, ed Leslie F. Church (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 1960), 438. Keil and Delitzsch, however, dismiss this scenario as
“Incomprehensible,” and note, as I do, and, as, I believe, the text is very
clear, that generations have passed, the Israelites have entered the promised
land, the original patriarch Ephraim is long dead, the father simply bears the
same name, and these young men have come down “to plunder” (C.F. Keil and F.
Delitzsch, trans. James Martin, Commentary on the Old Testament: Volume 3, 1
and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Peabody, MA:
Hendrikson, 1989), 140. Please note: this page number is in the second set of
numbers, as this printing is 3 volumes in 1.
[6]“Banah”
in Feyerabend, Langenscheidt Pocket Hebrew Dictionary to the Old Testament,
48.
[7]
Christine L. Anslow, “I Chronicles”, IVP Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers
Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2002), 217.
[8]
Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 3, 141.
[9]See
Welcome to Palestine.com, https://www.welcometopalestine.com/destinations/ramallah-al-bireh/beit-ur-al-foqa/.
[10]
Open Bible website has a 40% possible location for Uzzen-sherrah with a
satellite map, encircling a small settlement that is within 5 kilometers of the
other locations Sheerah rebuilt, currently known as “Beit
Ur al Tahta.” https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a57ea5f/uzzen-sheerah.
[11]
Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 3, 141-42.
[12] June Comay, “Sheerah,” 350. We can see the source of this
dissenting reading in the Septuagint, which gives the credit to her father in a
somewhat puzzling verse that claims the father of “Saraa” was “among those that
remained,” so it sounds as though there was a large slaughter of her family,
and her father was the one who built Bethoron the upper and the lower and a
descendant of Ozan (who that was is not clear, since that name is not listed in
the genealogy) was Seēra (spelled differently) see “A Chronicles I” in The
Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha with an English
Translation and with Various Readings and Critical Notes (London: Bagster
and Sons, n.d.), 539. Bible Hub website has several helpful excerpts from
standard commentaries falling on either side of the debate of whether Sheerah
herself had a hand in the building or not. Here are two representative ones: “Matthew Poole's Commentary, “His daughter, i.e. his grandchild,
or great-grandchild, for such are oft called sons or daughters in Scripture.
Who built Beth-horon, i.e. rebuilt or repaired, which possibly she did in
Joshua’s time. And this work may be ascribed to her, because these works were
done either by her design or contrivance, or by her instigation and influence upon
her husband and brethren who did it.” Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible, “And his daughter was Sherah,…That is, the
daughter of Beriah; not an immediate daughter, but a descendant of his,
otherwise she could not have reached the times of Joshua, as she did by what
follows: who built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper; which were cities on
the border of the tribe of Ephraim; which the Israelites having taken from the
Canaanites, and destroyed, she rebuilt, see Joshua 16:3.” https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_chronicles/7-24.htm. Helpful to remember when assessing
which version to follow is the wise counsel provided by The Updated New
American Standard Version website, in its discussion of the differences of
these two sources, under its section “Weighing the
Difference, Masoretic VS. Septuagint: The primary weight of external evidence generally goes to the original
language manuscripts, and the Codex Leningrad B 19A and
the Aleppo Codex are almost always preferred. In Old Testament Textual
Criticism, the Masoretic text is our starting point and should only be
abandoned as a last resort,” https://uasvbible.org/2023/05/26/the-masoretic-text-vs-the-greek-septuagint-a-comparative-study/.
[13] Eric C. Richter, “Sheerah, the Unknown City-Building Woman of 1 Chronicles 7:24,” Priscilla
Papers, 37/3, Spring, 2023,
28-29. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/sheerah-the-unknown-city-building-woman-of-1-chronicles-724/.
