A Builder Named Sheerah

Recently I was surprised to hear from our friends who have named their daughter as “Sheerah.” They said that she is a biblical character whom they found worth naming their daughter after! Forgive me for my lack of Biblical knowledge. I started digging, googling about this special lady. I got motivated. 

Sheerah was a Blessing

Living in a nation where girls are considered as liabilities in many cultures, this came as a learning to realize that Sheerah was born as a blessing. The Bible narrates that she was born in the family of righteous Joseph. His wife was an Egyptian lady named Asenath, daughter of a local priest (Genesis 41:45).  This is important to consider because of the clannish cultural context of the Old Testament times. Many of us still hold to various unscriptural biases like this even today! The good Lord caused Jacob to give a double blessing to this inter-racial couple by giving both their sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, a blessing in par with his own sons, while children of others were not included (Genesis 48:1-22).

Sheerah is introduced in a time when Ephraim, one of Joseph’s sons had a misfortune in his life. Two of Ephraim’s sons, Ezer and Elead were killed by the “native-born” (emphasis mine) men of Gath, possibly because Ezer and Elead were of inter- racial origin, their grand mom being an Egyptian! In such a time of mourning, Ephraim was blessed with another son, named Beriah. Added to Beriah was another bundle of joy and blessing, Sheerah our heroine. (Read 1 Chronicles 7:21-24)

Sheerah Built Cities

It surprises me at this point to see a female progeny finding her place, ‘named’ in the Bible! Not many had that privilege. The next shock is that Sheerah built three cities/communities named, Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah 

(1 Chronicles 7:24).  

She was an acclaimed personality to the extent that a city she built was named after her.  I am surprised that a huge task of building three cities is mentioned in just one verse here. One commentator suspects that such a mammoth task could have been achieved by men and not a woman like Sheerah! https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/sheerah/   

Does not the Bible also mention about the daughters of Shallum, an influential governor in Nehemiah’s time, who repaired the walls of Jerusalem? A wise woman can not only build homes, she can repair and build houses, be an architect, a city-planner and do all jobs under the sun! It is God who enables her!

God Saved Sheerah’s City

This would be even more surprising. It was in one of the cities Sheerah built, Beth Horon, did God perform an extra ordinary victory for the Israelites over their enemies while conquering Canaan. God saved Sheerah’s city from oppression. It was after this incident, on that very day did Joshua  command the sun and the moon to stand still. They obeyed! This astronomical miracle is associated to Beth Horon, Sheerah’s city. It became a historical event (Read Joshua 10:1-14). Later Beth Horon became a dwelling place of the Levites and priests. Is that not a blessing again? (1 Chronicles 6:68) The Bible says that Solomon fortified Sheerah’s cities, both Upper and Lower Beth Horon further down in history (2 Chronicles 8:5).  The foundation Sheerah laid was so strong that Solomon only had to fortify it. The modern names of these cities are Beit Ur al Fuqua and Beit Ur al Tahat. It is said that the foundations are still visible!

Last but not the least, a wise woman like Sheerah builds. The wisdom writer also mentions about what a foolish woman would do! (Proverbs 14:1) May the life of Sheerah encourage women and men to be constructive so that we also build God’s Kingdom here on earth.