Shiahs. See Siiiites.
Shib'boleth (Heb. Shibho'kth, rbar). After Jephthah had beaten the Ammonites, the men of Ephra- im were jealous of the advantage obtained by the tribes beyond Jordan, and complained loudly that they had not been called to that expedition. Jeiihthah answer- ed with much moderation ; but that did not prevent the Ephraimites from using contemptuous language towards the men of (iilead. Thej' taunted them with being only fugitives from ICphraim and Manasseh, a kind of bastards that belonged to neither of the two tribes. A war ensued, and the men of Gilead killed a great number of Ephraimites; after which they set guards at all the passes of Jordan, and when an P^phraimite who had escaped came to the river-side and desired to pass over, they asked him if he were not an Ephraimite? If he said No, they bade him pronounce Shibboleth ; but he pronouncing it Sibboleth (q. v.), sustituting '"O or O for C, according to the diction of the Eplirainiites, they killed him. In this way there fell 42,000 Ephraimites (Judg. xii). See Ji';phthah.
The word Shibboleth, which has now a second life in the Englisli language in a new signification, has two meanings in Hebrew; (1) an ear of corn ((ien. xli, etc.) ; (2) a stream or flooil : and it was, perhaps, in the latter sense that this particidar word suggested itself to the (iileadites, the Jordan being a rajiid river. The word, in the latter sense, is used twice in Psa. Ixix, in verses 2 and 15. where the translation of the A. Y. is "the //oo(/s overflow me," and "let not the w&ier- flood overflow me;" also in Isa. xxvii, 12 ("channel"), Zech. iv, 12 ("branch"). If in English the word retained its original meaning, the latter passage might be trans- lated " let not a shil)boleth of waters drown me." There is no mystery in this particular word. Any word be- ginning with the sound sk would have answered equal- ly well as a test.
The above incident should not be passed over with- out observing tbat it affords proof of dialectical varia- tions among the tribes of the same nation, and speaking the same language, in those early days. There can be no wonder, therefore, if we find in later ages the same word written different ways, according to the pronunci- ation of different tribes, or of different colonies or resi- dents of the Hebrew people; whence various pointings, etc. That this contiinied is evident from the peculiar- ities of the (ialila'an dialect, by which Peter was dis- covered to be of that district (jMark xiv, 70). Before the introduction of vowel-points (which took place not earlier than the (ith century A.D.) there was nothing in Hebrew to distinguish the letters Shin and Sin, so it could not be known by the eye in reading when h was to t)e sounded after s, just as now in English there is nothing to show that it should be sounded in the words sugar, Asia, Persia ; or in (ierman, according to the most common proniniciation, after s in the words Spruche, Spiel, Sturm, Stiefel, and a large class of sim- ilar words. It is to be noted that the sound sh is un- known to the Creek language, as the English th is ini- known to so many modern languages. Hence in the Sept. jiropcr names commence siin]ily with *■ which in llcl)rcw coiiunence with sh ; and one result has been th;it, through the Sept. and the A'ldg., some of these names, such as Samuel, Samson, .Simeon, and Solomon, having become naturalized in the (ireek form in the English language, have been retained in this form in (lie I'jiglish version of the Old Test. Hence, likewise, it is a singularity of the Sept. version that in the |>as- sage in .liidg. xii, fi the translator cotdd not inlroduce the word "Shibboleth" and has substituted one of its translations, aTa\vQ, "an ear of corn," which tells the
SIIIBMAII
6:
SHIELD
original story by analogy. It is not impossible that this word may have been ingeniously preferred to any Greek word signifying '• stream," or " tiood," from its first letters being rather harsh-sounding, independently of its containing a guttural. — Calinet; Smith. See GUnther, De Dialect. Trihniaii Judw, Ephraim, et Benja- min (Lips. 1714). See Hebrew Language.
Shib'mah (Numb, xxxii, 38). See Sibmah.
Shi'cron [some Shic'i-oni (Heb. Shikron', "iTD'^, drunkenness [as in Ezek. xxiii, 33; xxxix, 19; butFUrst s&ys fruitjidness~[\ Sept. 5;o(i:Y'>>3' \.t,' AKKapwva [imi- tating the n directive]), a town near the western end of the northern boundarj' of Judah, between Ekron and Mt. Baalah towards Jabneel (.Josh, xv, 11). It seems to have been in Dan, as it is not enumerated among the cities of Judah (ver. 21-63). The Targum gives it as Shika- 7-071, and with this agrees Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. 2a;;^a»- pdv), though no knowledge of the locality of the place is to be gained from his notice. Neither Schwarz {Pal- est, p. 98) nor Porter {IJundb. for Pal. p. 275) has dis- covered any trace of it. It is, perhaps, the present ruined village Beit Shit, about half-way between Ekron and Ashdod.
Shidders, in Hindu mythology, is a class of good genii, or devetas, not to be identitied with the devs of the Persians, which are evil genii.
Shield is the rendering in the A. V. of the four fol- lowing Hebrew words, of which the first two are the most usual and important; likewise of one Greek word.