SEIR. - Geographical name in use in the Old Testament (Heb. Sē'ir; cf. Sā'ir "hairy, shaggy" and "goat"; also "wild demonic being": Is. 13:21).

1. A mountainous plateau in Edomite territory, from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Elanitic, in which the Horites lived (Gen. 14:6), later subjugated by the Edomites (Deut. 2:12, 22). The reading of the name of this place on an obelisk of Ramses II has recently been pointed out: this text clarifies the accounts in Deut. 2:8 of the passage of the children of Israel avoiding the Edomites of S.

2. A "Horite" population (a branch of the Hurrians) that lived on the plateau of the same name: in the genealogy given in Gen. 36:20-30 many subdivisions ("sons") appear with totemic names.

3. A mountain in the western part of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:10): perhaps the height 4 hours from Jerusalem on which the village of Sāris stands. But the text is doubtful (Septuagint: Ἀσσάρ).

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: V. Guérin, Description de la Palestine, I, Paris 1868-1880, pp. 62, 281-83; J. Janssen, Les Monts Sē'ir dans les textes égyptiens, in Biblica, 15 (1934), pp. 537-58.

Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec11_seir, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Seir}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {266}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/seir} }

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