Shelu'miel (Heb. Shehimiil', h^^Tzb'C;, friend of God; Sept. "S-aXaf-itifk), son of Zurishaddai (Numb, ii, 12) and jihylarch of Simeon (x, 19), appointed to num- ber his people at the Exode (i, 6), w-ho then amounted to 59,300 males (ver. 7). B.C. 1057. He made his of- fering for the tabernacle like the rest (vii, 36, 41).
Shem (Heb. id. Cw, name; Sept. [and New Test. Luke iii, 39] 2/}//, Josephus '2S]jiaQ [.4hM, 4, 1] ; Vnlg. Seni), the son of Noah, born (Gen. v, 32) when his father had attained the age of 500 years. B.C. 2613. He was 98 years old, married, and childless, at the time of the flood. After it he, with his father, brothers, sisters-in- law, and wife, received the blessing of God (ix. 1), and entered into the covenant. Two years afterwards he became the father of Arphaxad (xi, 10), and other chil- dren were born to him subsequently. With the help of his brother Japheth he covered the nakedness of their father, which Canaan and Ham did not care to hide. In the prophecy of Noah which is connected with this incident (ix, 25-27), the first blessing falls on Shem. He died at the age of 600 years. B.C. 2013.
Assuming that the years ascribed to the patriarchs in the present copies of the Hebrew Bible are correct, it appears that IMethuselah, who in his first 243 years was contemporarj- with Adam, had still nearly 100 years of his long life to run after Shem was born. Again, when Shem died Abraham was 148 years old, and Isaac had been nine years married. There are, therefore, but two links — Methuselah and Shem — between Adam and Isaac. Thus the early records of the creation and the fall of man which came down to Isaac, would challenge (apart from tlieir inspiration) the same confidence which is readily yielded to a tale that reaches the hearer through two well-known persons between himself and the orig- inal chief actor in the events related. See Longevity. There is, indeed, no chronological improbability in that ancient Jewish tradition which brings Shem and Abra- ham into personal conference. See Melchizedek.
The portion of the earth occupied by the descendants of Sliem (Gen. X, 21-31) intersects the portions of Ja- |)heth and Ham, and stretches in an uninterrupted line from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. Be- ginning at its north-western extremity with Lydia (ac- cording to all ancient authorities, though doubted by IMichaelis [see Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 745]), it includes Syria ( Aram), Chald.'ea (Arphaxad), parts of Assyria (Asshur), of Persia (Elam), and of the Arabian peninsu- la (Joktan). See Ethnology; Shemitic Lanoitages,
The servitude of Canaan under Shem, predicted by
SHEM
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SIIEM
Noah (Gen. ix, 26), was fulfilled primarily in the subju- gation uf the people of Palestine (Josh, xxiii, 4 ; 2 Chron. viii, 7, 8). It is doubtful whether, in ver. 27, God or Japheth is mentioned as the dweller in the tents of Shem. In the former sense the verse may refer to the special presence of God with the Jews, and to the de- scent of Christ from them ; or, in the latter sense, to the occupation of Palestine and adjacent countries by the Romans, and, spiritually understood, to the accession of the (ientiles to the Church of God (Ephes. iii, 6). See Pfeiflferi Opera, p. 40 ; Newton, On the Pfophecies, Diss, i. — Smith.
Biittraann has conjectured (from the resemblance of D'j with D'^'^O'iIJ) that Shem was the original of Saturn or Uranus (.4 bliandl. d. Berliner A kad. 1816, 1817, p. 150 sq. ; Philos. Classe und ini Mifthul. i, 221 sq.) ; but there is no good ground for such a fancy.
Comparative Ages of Noah's Sons. — In Gen. x, 21 occurs a statement on this point, but the original is unfortunately ambiguous: "^ISX N'liTDa 1^7 ^'4?^ ibinjn nS"; ^nx nni—'Sa-bs. This may be ren- dered either, "And to Shem [there] was born — also [to] him — [a son], [the] father of all [the] sons of Eber, [the] brother of [the] elder Japheth," or " [the] ekler brother of Japheth." The English A. V. adopts the former rendering ('' brother of Japlieth the elder"), fol- lowing the Sept. {aSeXfo^ 'IcKpeSr tov j.uiZoi'OQ [Vat. and Alex. ; Sin. is wanting] ), Symmachus, the Targura of Onkelos (StS'n J^S"^"! ^fl^nx), and the Masoretic accents (as given above) ; and this view is also taken by Rashi, Aben-Ezra, Luther, Junius, Piscator, JMercer, Montanus, Le Clerc, J. U. Michaelis, Mendelssohn, De Sola, Jervis, and other eminent Hebraists. The other rendering is adopted by the Samaritan Codex, the Latin Vulgate (" fratre Japheth majore"), the Peshito-Syriac, the Ara- bic of Saadias, and most modern commentators (Ro- senmiiller, Turner, Bush, Philippson, Kalisch, Conant, Lange, Tayler Lewis, Keil, INIurphy, etc.). To our mind both the diplomatic and the linguistic arguments are conclusive for the common English rendering.
(I.) Chronological Considerations. — These may be briefly stated as follows :
1. Noah had a son born when he was himself 500 years old (Gen. v, 32). This must have been either his oldest or his youngest son, for it woidd be entirely nu- gatory to say that the middle one of his three sons was then born, unless that middle one were Shem himself.
2. The son then born was not Shem, for