Shalisha

Shal'isha

[some Shali'sha] (Heb. Shalishah', שָׁלשָׁה, perhaps triangle; Sept. Σαλισσά v.r. Σελχά, a district (אֶרֶוֹ, "land") traversed by Saul when in search of the asses of Kish (1Sa 9:4). It apparently lay between "Mount Ephraim" and the "land of Shaalim," a specification which, with all its evident preciseness, is irrecognizable, because the extent of Mount Ephraim is so uncertain; and Shaalim, though probably near Taiyibeh, is not yet definitely fixed there. The difficulty is increased by locating Shalisha at Saris or Khirbet Saris, a village a few miles west of Jerusalem, south of Abu Gosh (Tobler; Dritte Wand. p. 178), which one have proposed. If the land of Shalisha contained, as it not impossibly did, the place called Baal-shalisha (2Ki 4:42), which, according to the testimony of Ebuseus and Jerome (Onom. s.v. "Beth-Salisha), lay fifteen Roman (or twelve English) miles north of Lydd, then the whole disposition of Saul's route would be changed. The words Eglath Shalishiyah in Jer 48:34 (A.V. "a heifer of three years old") are by some translators rendered as if denoting a place named Shalisha. But even if this be correct, it is obvious that the Shalisha of the prophet was on the coast of the Dead Sea, and therefore by no means appropriate for that of Saul. Lieut. Conder proposes (Tent Work in Palest. 2, 339) to identify Shalisha with Kefr Thilth, a ruined village on the western slope of Mount Ephraim, situated on the south side of Wady Azzun, which runs into the river Kanah (Robinson, Later Researches, p. 136, note); but there is nothing special to recommend the site except a considerable correspondence in the names. SEE RAMAH.