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Erich Lessing

Weedy ruins now mark the site of once-lovely Tirzah, seven miles northeast of Shechem, After usurping the throne, Baasha, third king of the northern kingdom of Israel (906–883 B.C.E.), moved the capital from Shechem to Tirzah, which in the Song of Songs (6:4) became a byword for beauty; “Thou are beautiful, my dearest, as Tirzah ….” Omri, the northern kingdom’s sixth king (c. 882–871 B.C.E.), reigned from Tirzah six years, but then moved his capital to Samaria, possibly to achieve a more commercially strategic location.