Shema

she'-ma (shema`; Samaa): A city of Judah in the Negeb (Josh 15:26). If, as some think, identical with SHEBA (which see) of Josh 19:2, then the latter must have been inserted here from Josh 15:26. It is noticeable that the root letters (sh-m-`) were those from which Simeon is derived. Shema is probably identical with Jeshua (Neh 11:26). The place was clearly far South, and it may be Kh. Sa`wah, a ruin upon a prominent hilltop between Kh. `Attir and Khirbet el-Milch. There is a wall around the ruins, of large blocks of conglomerate flint (PEF, III, 409, Sh XXV).

E. W. G. Masterman

(shema`):

(1) A Reubenite (1 Chr 5:8, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus Sama, Lucian, Semeei).

See SHIMEI.

(2) One of the heads of "fathers' houses" in Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath (1 Chr 8:13, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus Sama, Lucian, Samoa); in 1 Chr 8:21 he is called "Shimei." The statement is very obscure and the whole incident is probably due to some marginal note.

(3) One of those who stood at Ezra's right during the reading of the Law (Neh 8:4, Samaias). He is called "Sammus" in 1 Esdras 9:43.

Horace J. Wolf