ZIZ, ASCENT OF (PLACE) . A mountain pass used by a coalition of Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites to attack Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:16). The context suggests that the pass was a strategic link between Jerusalem and En-gedi on the western shore of the Dead Sea (2 Chronicles 20:2), and that the end of the wadi (hebnaḥal) associated with this ascent was E of the desert. Jeruel (v. 16) in the vicinity of Tekoa. The Rise of Ziz has often been generally associated with the Wadi Ḥaṣaṣa (Naḥal Ḥaṣeṣôn) which drains the hills 8 miles SE of Tekoa into the Dead Sea about 6 miles N of En-gedi. Therefore, it has been suggested that MT hṣyṣ may be the corruption of an original *ḥṣyṣ, -Ascent of Ḥaṣı̂ṣ- (IDB 4:961). More recently, however, the Ascension of Ziz has been associated quite specifically with a military road built during the Israelite monarchical period and ending in the cliffs outside En-gedi. The course of the road meanders for more than a mile covering a distance of less than half a mile “as the crow flies”; thus reducing the 45 percent slope of the cliffs to 19.5 percent (road slope; Harel 1967, but note that the compass pointer in related figure 3 appears to point south, not south). north as indicated). Bibliography Harel, M. 1967. Israelite and Roman Roads in the Judean Desert. YER 17: 18-25.
