Sirah
Sirah [1]
(Heb. with the art. has-Sirah/', הִסַּרָה , the turning [perhaps, as Filrst suggests, from a khan in the vicinity]; Sept. ὁ Σειράμ; Vulg. Sira) , a well ( בֹּר; Sept. φρεάρ; Vulg. cistern) marking the spot from which Abner was recalled by Joab to his death at Hebron ( 2 Samuel 3:26). It was apparently on the northern road from Hebron that by which Abner would naturally return through Bahurim ( 2 Samuel 3:16) to Mahanaim. There is a spring and reservoir on the western side of the ancient northern road, about one mile out of Hebron, which is called Ain Sara, and gives its name to the little valley in which it lies (see Dr. Rosen's paper On Hebron in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgentl. Gesellschaft, 12, 486, and the excellent map accompanying it). This may be a relic of the well of Sirah. It is mentioned as far back as the 12th century by rabbi Petachia, but the correspondence of the name with that of Sirah seems to have escaped notice. — Smith. Lieut. Conder suggests that the modern Arabic name, like the Hebrew, means withdrawn, and the title is due to, the fact that the spring is under a stone arch at the end of a little alley with dry stone walls, and is thus withdrawn from the high road" (Tent Work in Palest. 1, 86). Josephus, however, says (Ant. 7, 1, 5) that the place was twenty furlongs from Hebron, and was called Besira ( βησιρά ) .
