SHEMA (1)

she'-ma (shema`; Samaa): A city of Judah in the Negeb (Joshua 15:26). If, as some think, identical with SHEBA (which see) of Joshua 19:2, then the latter must have been inserted here from Joshua 15:26. It is noticeable that the root letters (sh-m-`) were those from which Simeon is derived. Shema is probably identical with Jeshua (Nehemiah 11:26). The place was clearly far South, and it may be Kh. Sa`wah, a ruin upon a prominent hilltop between Kh. `Attir and Khirbet el-Milch. There is a wall around the ruins, of large blocks of conglomerate flint (PEF, III, 409, Sh XXV).

E. W. G. Masterman

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.