SIRAH, CISTERN OF

(Siʹrah),

Abner was at the cistern of Sirah when Joab’s messengers had him return to Hebron (where he was subsequently murdered). (2 Sam. 3:26, 27) Sirah may correspond to ʽAin Sarah, a spring or well about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) NW of Hebron. Josephus claims that Sirah (which he calls Besira) was twenty furlongs (or less than two and a half statute miles [c. 4 kilometers]) from Hebron.—Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, chap. I, par. 5.