A town of Judah (Jos_15:26), deriving its origin from Hebron, and in its turn colonizing Maon (1Ch_2:43-45; Jos_15:26).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
shē?ma (שׁמע, shemā‛; Σαμαά, Samaá): A city of Judah in the Negeb (Jos_15:26). If, as some think, identical with SHEBA (which see) of Jos_19:2, then the latter must have been inserted here from Jos_15:26. It is noticeable that the root letters (שׁמע, sh-m-‛) were those from which Simeon is derived. Shema is probably identical with Jeshua (Neh_11:26). The place was clearly far South, and it may be Kh. Sa‛wah, a ruin upon a prominent hilltop between Kh. ‛Attı̄r and Khirbet el-Milḥ. There is a wall around the ruins, of large blocks of conglomerate flint (PEF, III, 409, Sh XXV).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.