Zeruiah

ZERUIAH

ze-roo-i'-a, ze-roo'-ya (tseruyah, tseruyah (2 Samuel 14:1; 16:10), meaning uncertain; Sarouia):

In 2 Samuel 2:18; 17:25; 1 Chronicles 2:16, and elsewhere where the names Joab, Abishai, occur. According to 1 Chronicles 2:16 a sister of David and mother of Joab, Abishai and Asahel, the two former being always referred to as sons of Zeruiah. This latter fact is explained by some as pointing to a type of marriage by which the children belonged to their mother's clan (compare Abimelech, Judges 8:31; 9:1); by others as being due to her husband's early death; and again as a proof of the mother in this case being the stronger personality. Either of the last two reasons may be the correct one, and plenty of parallels from the village names of boys today can be produced to illustrate both explanations. According to 2 Samuel 2:32, her husband was buried at Bethlehem. In 2 Samuel 17:25, "Abigal the daughter of Nahash" is said to be her sister.

See ABIGAIL.

David Francis Roberts