Seys, John, D.D., a minister of the IVIcthodist Epis- copal Church, was born in Santa Cruz Island, West In- dies, March 30, 1799. In 1821 he joined the Wesleyan Church in the island of St. Eustatius. Notwithstand- ing much opposition from friends, he continued in this Church, ami in 1825 was licensed a local preacher. He was ordained in 1829, and, coming to the United States, joined the Oneida Conference. In 1833 he was a mis- sionary among the Oneida Indians, and in 1834 sailed for Liberia as superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church Jlissious in West Africa. He returned in 1841,
SFORNO
606
SHADDAI
and iH 1842 he was appointed to Wilkesbarre, Pa. The following year he went again to Liberia, from which he returned in 1845, when he resigned his connection with the mission and joined the New York Conference. In 18o0 he became travelling agent of the Maryland Coloni- zation Society, locating at Baltimore, where he remained six years. He was then appointed agent for the Coloni- zation Society of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and moved to Springfield, O. The same year he M'ent to Africa and located a settlement, and from this time to 1870 was associated with Africa and the improvement of the colored race. He also acted as United States agent for recaptured slaves, and as United States consul and minister resident in Liberia. On his return to tlie United States, he became, bj' request, a member of the Cincinnati Conference. He died Feb. 9, 1872. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1872, p. 107.
Sforno, Ob.vdiaii. See Obadiaii ben-Jacob de SroitNO.
Shaalab'bin (Heb. Shmdahbin' , V?^?'^ 5 ^^'t many MSS. Shaalabbini', Ca5S"IIJ, city of foxes ; Sept. 2a\a/3i'i' V. r. 'S.aXaf.mv ; Vulg. Selebin'), a town in the tribe of Dan (Josh, xix, 42, where it is named between Ir-shemesh and Ajalon) ; probably the same elsewhere (Judg. i, 35; 1 Kings iv, 9) called Suaalbim (q. v.).
Shaal'bim (Heb. Shaalbini', D'^^b^llj, according to Fl'irst = D"^b>VJ rr^a, house [i. e. place] of foxes ; Sept. ^aXa^ii', ^aXa[3diJi, v. r. Qaa\a(3th', Br]^a\afiei, and even ai nXwTrfwt') "occurs in an ancient fragment of history inserted in Judg. i, enumerating the towns of which the original inhabitants of Canaan succeeded in keeping possession after the general conquest. Mount Heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbira were held against the Danites by the Amorites (ver. 35) till, the help of the great tribe of Ephraim being called in, they were at last compelled to succumb. It is mentioned with Aija- lon again in Josh, xix, 42 (Shaalabbin), and with Beth- shemesh both there and in 1 Kings iv, 9, in the last passage as making up one of Solomon's commissariat districts. By Euseblus and Jerome it is mentioned in the Onomasficon (s. v. ' Selab') as a large village in the district of Sebaste (i. e. Samaria), and as then called Selaba. But this is not very intelligible, for, except in the statement of Josephus (.4;;^. v, 1, 22) that the allot- ment of the Danites extended as far north as Dor (Tan- tura), there is nothing to lead to the belief that any of their towns were at all near Samaria (see Schwarz, Pa- lest, p. 140), while the persistent enumeration of Shaal- bim with Aijalon and Beth-shemesh, the sites of both which are known with tolerable certainty as within a radius of fifteen miles west of Jerusalem, is strongly against it. It is also at variance with another notice of .lerome, in his commentary on Ezek. xlviii, 22, where he mentions the 'towers of Ailon and Selcbi and Em- maus-Nicopolis,' in connection with Joppa, as three landmarks of the tribe of Dan" (Smith). Shaalbim may possibly be identified with the modern village Beit Sira, a village a little north of Yalo, on the south side of Wady Suleiman ; or, perhaps (so Fiirst), rather with Selbit, a ruined village north of the wady (Robinson, Jicsearc/ies, 1852, iii, 144, notes). See Siiaai^bonite.
Shaal'bouite (Heb. Shaalboni', i5hbr';C; Sept. 2«Xa/3aii'ir;jc, v. r. 2aXa/3aij'(', Soijuei, and even 'Ofjui; Vulg. Salahonites, de Salboni), an epithet of Eliahba (q. v.), one of David's thirty-seven chief heroes (2 Sam. xxiii, 32; 1 Chron. xi,33); evidently as being a native of Shaalbon. a place otherwise unknown, unless identi- cal with Shaalbim (q. v.).
Sha'aph (Heb. id. fc)"C ; Gesenius dirkion, but Fiirst union ; Sept. ^nyuip, v. r. ^ayai, '^i'p, ^Haaf), the name of two men.
1. Last named of six sons of Jahdai, of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. ii, 47). B.C. prob. post 1(>12.
2. Third named of four sons of JIaachah, concubine
of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah; he was the "father" (i. 0. founder) of Madmannah (I Chron. ii, 49). B.C. post 1612.
Shaara'am (Heb. Shaara'yim, C"]"!!'!;:, iv:o gates; Sept. in Josh. 'S.aKnpifi, in Sam. a'l ttuXiiq, in Chron. ^tiopiifi [v. r. Sapi'/f] ; Vulg. Saraim, SaaTim), a town in the ''valley" or maritime plain of Judah (Josh, xv, 36, A. V. "Sharaim," where it is named between Aze- kah and Adithaim). Its occurrence among the cities of Simeon (1 Chron. iv, 31) is probably a clerical error for Shanihen (Josh, xix, 6). " It is mentioned again in the account of the rout which followed the fall of Goli- ath, where the wounded fell down on the road to Sha- araim and as far as Gath and Itlkron (1 Sam. xvii, 52). These two notices are consistent with each other. Go- liath probably fell in the Wady es-Sumt, on opposite sides of which stand the representatives of Socoh and Jarmuth ; Gath was at or near Tell es-Safieh, a few miles west of Socoh at the mouth of the same wady; while Ekron (if 'Akir be Ekron) lies farther north. Shaaraim is probably therefore to be looked for some- where west of Shuweikeh, on the lower slopes of the hills, where they subside into the great plain" (Smitli). "The valley of Elah runs down among the hills for some distance, and then forks below Tell-Zakariah ; one branch, or rather side valley, running to Gath (Tell es- Satieh), and the other to the plain of Ekron. Perhaps the town of Shaaraim may have been situated at tiie fork, and may have taken its name from the ' two pass- es' (see Porter, Iland-boolc for Sin. and Pal. p. 264)" (Kitto). It is probably identical with the Ir-Tarain of the Talmnd {Tosephtah, Ahaloth, s. f.), for the Chal- dee tarain has the same meaning, (/ates (Schwarz. Pa- lest, p. 102). From the associated localities it must be sought in the vicinity of the modern Shuhnuh, a vil- lage with traces of ruins about two and a half miles south of Ekron (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 114), Lieut. Conder at first proposed Tell Zakaiiah as a suitable position for Shaaraim (Quar. Statement of "the Pal. Explor, Fund," 1875, p. 194), but M. Ganneau suggests the ruin Sa'ireh (ibid. p. 182), mentioned in Dr. Robin- son's list (Append, to vol. iii, 1st ed. of Researches) be- tween Shuweikeh and Beit-Netif, in which Lieut, Con- der seems finally to coincide {Tent Work in Pal. ii, 339).