ZELZAH zĕl’ zə (צֶלְצַ֑ח). A place in Benjamin near Rachel’s tomb (1 Sam 10:2).

Two men were providentially to meet young Saul here with news about the lost donkeys (cf. 1 Sam 10:7).

Aside from 1 Samuel 10:2 nothing is known of the name Zelzah, which may have been a local village identification term. The LXX had its problems with the name, tr. it by ἁλλομένους μεγάλα, “leaping mightily.” Nor is the site’s exact location known aside from its being near Rachel’s tomb, which burial place (Jer 31:15; cf. Matt 2:18) possibly being near Ramah, was presumably a town in Benjamin (Josh 18:25). Jacob’s description of his burying Rachel on the way to Ephrath-Bethlehem, but some distance from it (Gen 48:7; cf. 35:19), satisfies the geographical requirements for the tomb at Benjaminite Ramah and Zelzah.

Bibliography E. G. Kraeling, Bible Atlas (1956), 177, 178.