Place

Zelzah

셀사

Named at 1 Samuel 10:2, where Samuel says to Saul, “When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah.”

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Collected relationship evidence

Source-backed narrative relations; not independent historical verification. Legacy dates and coordinates are outside this review.

Collection & rights

Source evidence (1)

AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

1SA 10:1–8, engwebp
¹Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him and said, “Hasn’t the LORD anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?
²When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found; and behold, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do for my son?”’
³“Then you will go on forward from there, and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there going up to God to Bethel: one carrying three young goats, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a container of wine.
⁴They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hand.
⁵“After that you will come to the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is; and it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a lute, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying.
⁶Then the LORD’s Spirit will come mightily on you, then you will prophesy with them and will be turned into another man.
⁷Let it be, when these signs have come to you, that you do what is appropriate for the occasion; for God is with you.
⁸“Go down ahead of me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Wait seven days, until I come to you and show you what you are to do.”
Publisher text Rights & provenance

AI-assisted, human review pending, 2026-09-26

Machine comparison on 2026-10-07: the wording raised none of the 3 rules against the passages this entry cites. No person has read it.

Unresolved interpretation: Rachel’s grave of Genesis 35:19–20 and Rachel’s tomb on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah in 1 Samuel 10:2

Genesis 35:19–20 says, “Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.”
Source evidence (1)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- GEN 35:16–20, engwebp
  ¹⁶They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.
  ¹⁷When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”
  ¹⁸As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
  ¹⁹Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
  ²⁰Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
1 Samuel 10:2 has Samuel say to Saul, “When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah.”
Source evidence (1)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- 1SA 10:1–8, engwebp
  ¹Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him and said, “Hasn’t the LORD anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?
  ²When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found; and behold, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do for my son?”’
  ³“Then you will go on forward from there, and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there going up to God to Bethel: one carrying three young goats, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a container of wine.
  ⁴They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hand.
  ⁵“After that you will come to the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is; and it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a lute, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying.
  ⁶Then the LORD’s Spirit will come mightily on you, then you will prophesy with them and will be turned into another man.
  ⁷Let it be, when these signs have come to you, that you do what is appropriate for the occasion; for God is with you.
  ⁸“Go down ahead of me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Wait seven days, until I come to you and show you what you are to do.”
  Publisher text Rights & provenance

Genesis 35:19–20 says that Rachel was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem) and that Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; 1 Samuel 10:2 names Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah, in Samuel’s words to Saul. In both editions Genesis names the way to Ephrath and 1 Samuel the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. The text does not say how Zelzah stands to the way to Ephrath. This collection gives the tomb no entry, records both passages as Rachel’s evidence, and does not decide whether the two passages speak of one place.

Geographic sources & candidates

Matched to OpenBible.info’s “Zelzah” by name and 1 shared verse. The dataset reads the word as not a place name. No coordinate is assigned.

AI-assisted source review; human approval pending, 2026-09-29

Zelzah
The dataset reads the word as not a place name.
OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, “Zelzah” (CC BY 4.0)

Original editorial notes; linked source texts retain their own rights. Candidate lists are not exhaustive.

Verses tagged with this entry

Names in the World English Bible text that carry this entry’s tag. They are carried over from the tags on the Korean Revised Version, which are matched by name inside chapters that already have collected evidence, and a verse where the English says “he” carries none. All await human review. They are a separate list from the source passages above. An empty list does not mean the entry is absent from the text.

1 verses

1 Samuel 10:2 Open that verse

When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found; and behold, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do for my son?”’

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[Bibliadatum entry report]

Entry: Zelzah (place-zelzah)
Address: https://bibliadatum.org/en/wiki/place/zelzah
Current wording: Named at 1 Samuel 10:2, where Samuel says to Saul, “When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah.”
Cited evidence: 1SA 10:1–8, engwebp
Review state: ai-assisted / human-review-pending

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This collection records what the text says and does not settle interpretation. A report about a reading that divides opinion may be registered as an unresolved issue rather than corrected.