I’ve been watching crews work on the infrastructure for a new housing and mixed-use development in our town. Weeks and weeks of moving dirt, preparing for future storm drainage and laying out streets. All before a single building goes up. Building a city takes careful planning and lots of hard work.

Which is why I find this brief reference to Sheerah so interesting. Either Ephraim’s daughter or granddaughter (the text is not totally clear), Sheerah built Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah.

Rare to see a woman listed as a builder of cities in the Bible. Sheerah must have possessed a great deal of drive and leadership skills to organize those around her to haul rock and level ground and work together for the good of the community. Foundations she laid thousands of years ago remain visible today.

I also find it interesting that one of the cities is named after her—Uzzen Sheerah. I wonder if she named it after herself, or did her grateful fellow citizens title the city in her honor? Either way the name stuck, which says a lot for the character and work ethic of this ancient architect and builder of cities.

1 Chronicles 7 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Ümit Yıldırım