5. (Sept. 2f/3££ V. r. So/3a^s.) A chief Gadite resi- dent in Bashan in the reign of Jeroboam II (1 Chron. V, 13). B.C. 781.
6. (Sept. Sfljuaa v. r. Sa/3sE.) One of the towns of the allotment of Simeon (.Josh, xix, 2). It occurs be- tween Beer-sheba and Moladah. In the list of the cities of the south of Judah, out of which those of Simeon were selected, no Sheba appears apart from Beer-sheba; but there is a Shcmii (xv, 2(1), which stands next to Mo- ladah and which is proliably the Sheba in question. This suggestion is supported by the reading of the Vat- ican copy of the Sept. The change from b to in is an easy one both in speaking and in writing, and in their other letters the words are identical. Some have sup- [losed that the name Sheba is a mere repetition of tlie latter portion of the preceding name, Beer-sheba — by the connnon error called honwiotelcnion — and this is sup- ported by the facts that the number of names given in xix, 2-6 is, including Sheba, fourteen, tliough the num- ber stated is tliirteen; and that in the list of Simeon of 1 Chron. (iv, 28) Sheba is entirely omitted. Ge- senius suggests that the words in xix, 2 may be ren- dered "Beer-sheba, the town, with Sheba, the well;" but this seems forced, and is, besides, inconsistent with the fact that the list is a list of "cities" {T/nsaur.
p. 1355 a, where other suggestions are cited). — Smith. See Shema.
She'bah (Heb. Shibah', ny^'r, fem. of Sheba, i. e. seven or an oath ; Sept. accordingly opKoi; ; Yulg. trans- lates less well abunikintia), the famous well which gave its name to the city of Beer-sheba (Gen. xxvi, 33). Ac- cording to this version of the occurrence, it was the fourth of the series of wells dug bj' Isaac's people, and received its name from him, apparently in allusion to the oaths (ver. 31, ^V'2'C^^, i/ishshubeii) which had passed be- tween himself and the Philistine chieftains the day be- fore. It should not be overlooked that according to the narrative of an earlier chapter the well owed its exist- ence and its name to Isaac's father (xxi, 32). Indeed, its previous existence may be said to be implied in tlie narrative now directly imder consideration (xxvi, 23). The two transactions are curiously identical in many of their circumstances — the rank and names of the Philis- tine chieftains, the strife between the subordinates on either side, the covenant, the adjurations, the city that took its name from the well. They differ alone in the fact that the chief figure in the one case is Abraham, in the other Isaac. Some commentators, as Kalisch {Genesis, p. 500), looking to the fact tliat there are two large wells at Bir es-Seba, propose to consider the two transactions as distinct, and as belonging the one to the one well, the other to the other. Others see in the two narratives merelv two versions of the circumstances under which this renowned well was first dug. Cer- tainly in the analogy of the early history of other na- tions, and in the very close correspondence between the details of the two accounts, there is much to support this. The various plays on the meaning of the name S':iTy, interpreting it as "seven," as an "oath," as "abun- dance" (so Jerome, as if reading n"2b), as "a lion" (such is the meaning of the modern Arabic Stba) — are all so many direct testimonies to the remote date and archaic form of this most venerable of names, and to the fact that the narratives of the early history of the He- brews are under the control of the same laws which regulate the early history of other nations. — Smith. In explanation of the repetition of the names of these wells, it sln)uld be noted that the sacred text expressly states that Isaac, after reopening them, "called their names after the names which his father had called them" (Gen. xxvi, 18). A minute description of the wells and vicinity of Beer-sheba is given by Lieut. Con- dor in the Qiiar. Statement of " The Pal. Explor. Fund" for Jan. 1875, p. 23 sq. See Beek-sheba ; Well.
She'bam (Heb. Sebam', Wyi^, fragrance ; Sept. I.tjiafia, and so the Samar. Cod. rtTS-U;), one of the towns in the pastoral district on the east of Jordan — the "land of Jazer and the land of Gilead" — demanded, and finally ceded to the tribes of Eeuben and Gad (Numb. xxxii, 3). It is named between Elealeh and Nebo, and is probably the same which, in a subsequent verse of the chapter and on later occasions, appears in the altered forms of Sims.MAii and Sibmah (q. v.). — Smith.
Shebani'all (Heb. Shebamjah', iT^32d, increased of Jehorah ; once [1 Chron. xv, 24] in the prolonged form Shebanya'Ini, irfpS'iTJ), the name of four Hebrews.
1. (Sept. 'S.iojitvia V. r. "Zojii'da and 2o/(j'/o.) One of the Levitioal trumpeters on the removal of the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Chron. XV, 24). B.C. 1043.
2. (Sept. 'S.ajiavia and SfYEii'o, v. r. ^ifiavia, 'Sa^a- via, etc.) One of Ezra's Levitical attendants, who stood upon tlie steps and uttered the jirayer of confession and thanksgiving (Neh. ix, 4, 5), and joined in the sacred covenant (x, 10). B.C. 4.59.