(B.P.)
Sham'ma (Heb. Shnmma', X'S'J, astonl<ihment or desolation; Sept. ^aj-ij^id v. r. 'Siaj.id and Sj/ui), the eighth named of the eleven sons of Zophah of the tribe of Asher (1 Chron. vii, 37), B.C. post 1658,
Sham'mah (Heb. Shammah', <l53d, astonishment or desolation), the name of four or five Hebrews.
1. (Sept. 2o^£ v. r. in Chron. So/(/(i.) Son of Reu- el and head of a family among Esau's descendants (lien. xxxvi, 13, 17; 1 Chri)n.i, 37). B.C. ante 18;')0.
2. (Sept. LV/tfi v. r. i:fr /<//«.) The third son of Jesse and brother of king David (1 Sam. xvi, 9; xvii, 13). From these two passages we learn that he was present at David's anointing by .Samuel, and that with his two elder Itrothers he joined the Hebrew army in the valley of I'.lah to tight with the Philistines. B.C. 1008. He is elsewhere, by a slight change in the name, called Siii.-\iK.,\ [(p v.] (1 Chron. xx, 7), Shi.meah (2 Sam. xiii, 3, 32), and Sih.m.ma (1 Chron. ii, 13).
SHAMMAI
616
SHAMMAR
3. (Sept. ^afiata v. r. 2n///(f «c.) The son of " Agee the Hararite," and one of the three chief of the thirty champions of David. B.C. 10(jl. The exploit by which he obtained this high distinction, as liescribed in 2 Sam. xxiii, 11, 12, is manifestly the same as that which in 1 Chron. xi, 12-14 is ascribed to David himself, assisted by Eleazar, the son of Dodo. The inference, therefore, is that Shammali's exi)loit laj' in the assistance which he had tluis rendered to David and Eleazar. It consisted in the stand which the others had enabled David to make, in a cultivated field, against the Philistines. Shammah also shared in the dangers which Eleazar and Jasho- beam incurred in the chivalric exploit of forcing a way through the riiilistine host to gratify David's thirst for the waters of Bethlehem (2 Sam. xxiii, IG). — Kitto. The scene of Shammah's exploit is said in Samuel to be a tield of lentiles (a"'dnS'), and in 1 Chron. a field of barley (D'i~n>b). Kennicott proposes in both cases to read " barley." the words being in Hebrew so similar that one is produced from the other by a very slight change and transposition of the letters (Dissert, p. 141). It is more likely, too, that the Philistines should attack and the Israelites defend a field of barley than a field of lentiles. In the Pesliito-Syriac, instead of being called "the Hararite," he is said to be "from the king's moun- tain," and the same is repeated at ver. 25. The Vat. MS. of the Sept. makes him the son of Asa (vwg Arra 6 'Apovx^ioc, where 'Apuvcaloi; was perhaps the orig- inal reading). Josephus (Ant. vii, 12, 4) calls him Ce- sab(eus the son of Ilus ('l\ov /xiu v'lug KijaajiaTuQ Si ovofia). — Smith.
4. (Sept. 'S.aijia v. r. ^af-ij-iai.) The Ilarodite, one of David's mighties (2 Sam. xxiii, 25). He is called ^^JSkivn- vioth the Harorite" in 1 Chron. xi, 27, and in xxvii, 8 "Shconhuth the Izrahite." Kennicott maintained the true reading in both to be " Shamhoth the Harodite" (Disse}t.Y>. 181). — Smith. He is evidently different from the preceding, as still ranking among the lower thirty.
5. (Sept. ^afivdv v. r. ^apvac.) In the list of Da- vid's mighty men in 2 Sam. xxiii, 32, 33, we find " Jon- athan, Shammah the Hararite;" while in the corre- sponding verse of 1 Chron. xi, 84 it is "Jonathan, the son of Shage the Hararite." Combining the two, Ken- nicott proposes to read "Jonathan, the son of Shamha, the Hararite," David's nephew who slew the giant in (iath (2 Sam. xxi, 21). Instead of "the Hararite," the Peshito-Syriac has " of the Mount of Olives;" in xxiii, 33, and in 1 Chron. xi, 34, "of JMount Carmel;" but the origin of both these interpretations is obscure. — Smith. The term " Hararite" (q. v.) may naturally designate a mountaineer, i. e. one from the mountains of Judah. Not only is the name Shammah here suspicious, as having already been assigned to two men in the list of David's heroes, but the epithet " Shage" is suspiciously similar to "Agee," and "Harorite" to "Hararite" given above. See David.
Sham'mai [many Sham'mai] (Heb. Shammay', ■"fid, desolate; Sept. 1 Chron. ii, 28 ^a^ijiiai; but ver. 32 'Axiiyaj-ti^ia [combining Alii with Shammai']; ver. 44 'Etfiad ; it, 17 i"f///t((t, v. r. "Zajjiiiaa., I.afiai, St/xti), the ■name of three men.
1. The elder of two sons of Onam, of the tribe of Ju- dah (1 Chron. ii, 28, 32). B.C. cir. I(;i8.
2. Son of liekem and father (founder) of !Maon, of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. ii, 44, 45). B.C. post 1()18.
3. Sixth child of Ezra, of the tribe of Judah, by a first wife (I Chron. iv, 17). B.C. post 1C18. He was possibly the same called Shimon (({. v.) in ver. 20. " Kabiji D. Kimclii conjectures that those were the chil- dren of Mered by his Egyptian wife Hithiah, tlie daugh- ter of Pharaoh. See Mkukd. The Se|)t. makes Jether the father of all three. The tradition in the Qucesf. in lAhr. Paral. identifies Shammai with Moses, and Ish- bah with Aaron" (Smith).
Shammai oi-' Shammai was the colleague of Hillel