Shoa
Sho'a (Heb. id. שׁוֹעִ, a cry for help, or rich, or liberal; Sept. Σουέ v.r. Σούδ; Vulg. tyranni), a proper name which occurs only in Eze 23:23, in connection with Pekod and Koa. The three apparently denote districts of Assyria with which the southern kingdom of Judah had been intimately connected, and which were to be arrayed against it for punishment. The Peshito-Syriac has Lud, that is, Lydia; while the Arabic of the London Polyglot has Sut, and Lud occupies the place of Koa. Rashi remarks on the three words, "The interpreters say that they signify officers, princes, and rulers." This rendering must have been traditional at the time of Aquila (ἐπισκέπτης καὶ τύραννοκ καὶ κορυφαῖος) and Jerome (nobiles, tyranni, et principes). Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1208 a) maintains that the context requires the words to be taken as appellatives, and not as proper names; and Furst, on the same ground, maintains the contrary (Handwb. s.v. קיע). Those who take Shoa as an appellative refer to the use of the word in Job 34:19 (A.V. "rich") and Isa 32:5 (A.V. "bountiful"), where it signifies rich, liberal, and stands in the latter passage in parallelism with נָדַיב, nadib, by which Kimchi explains it, and which is elsewhere rendered in the A.V. "prince" (Pr 17:7) and noble" (8:16). But a consideration of the latter part of the verse (Eze 23:23), where the captains and rulers of the Assyrians are distinctly mentioned, and the fondness which Ezekiel elsewhere shows for playing upon the sound of proper names (as in Eze 27:10; Eze 30:5), lead to the conclusion that in this case Pekod, Shoa, and Koa are proper names also; but nothing further can be said. The only name which has been found at all resembling Shoa is that of a. town in Assyria mentioned by Pliny, "Sue in rupibus," near Gangamela, and west of the Orontes mountain chain. Bochart (Phaleg, 4, 9) derives Sue from the Chaldee שׁוּעָא, shila', a rock. SEE KOA.
