His descendants, the Shimronites, formed one of the families of Issachar.—Gen. 46:8; Num. 26:23, 24.

2. A town whose king joined the confederation of northern Canaanites that Joshua defeated at the waters of Merom. (Josh. 11:1, 5, 8; 12:20; see SHIMRON-MERON.) Shimron was included in the tribal allotment of Zebulun. (Josh. 19:10, 15) The most commonly suggested location of ancient Shimron is Tell Semuniya, a short distance W of Nazareth, a site, however, rejected by a few.

SHIMRONITES

(Shimʹron·ites).

Descendants of Issachar’s son Shimron. At the time of the second wilderness census the registered ones of this family, together with those of the three other families making up this tribe, numbered 64,300.—Num. 26:23-25.

SHIMRON-MERON

(Shimʹron-meʹron).

A town, the domain of a king defeated by Joshua. (Josh. 12:7, 8, 20) It is perhaps the full name of the town Shimron, or possibly a reference to the fact that the king of Shimron was one of those defeated at the waters of Merom. (Josh. 11:1, 5, 7, 8) Some manuscripts separate the names as being two towns, Shimron and Meron, but no place called Meron is elsewhere alluded to.—See SHIMRON No. 2.

SHIMSHAI

(Shimʹshai) [sun child].

A scribe in the administration of Rehum, the chief government official of the Persian province “beyond the River,” which included Jerusalem. Shimshai joined in writing a letter to the Persian ruler Artaxerxes in an effort to stop the Jews from their rebuilding work in Jerusalem. Artaxerxes put through an order to stop the work, which was resumed during the reign of his successor King Darius Hystaspis (Darius I of Persia).—Ezra 4:8-24.

SHINAB

(Shiʹnab).

The king of Admah, one of five monarchs in the southern Dead Sea area who rebelled in his thirteenth year of vassalship to Chedorlaomer. The rebellion, however, was unsuccessful.—Gen. 14:1-10.

SHINAR

(Shiʹnar).

The original name of the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers later called Babylonia. It was there that Nimrod assumed kingship over Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, and where construction of the temple-tower of Babel was aborted. (Gen. 10:9, 10; 11:2-8) Later, the king of Shinar, Amraphel, was one of the confederates that took Abraham’s nephew Lot captive. (Gen. 14:1, 9, 12) This territory was still called by its original name in the days of Joshua. (Josh. 7:21) It is referred to by the prophets Isaiah, Daniel and Zechariah.—Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2; Zech. 5:11; see BABEL; BABYLONIA.

SHINING ONE

A descriptive designation applied to the “king of Babylon.” (Isa. 14:4, 12) The Hebrew expression thus translated (NW, Ro, Yg) comes from a root meaning “to shine.” The rendering “Lucifer” (AV, Da) is derived from the Latin Vulgate.

The “shining one” is represented as saying in his heart: “Above the stars of God I shall lift up my throne, and I shall sit down upon the mountain of meeting.” (Isa. 14:13) Biblical evidence points to Mount Zion as the “mountain of meeting.” (See MOUNTAIN OF MEETING.) Hence, since stars can refer to kings (Num. 24:17; Rev. 22:16), the “stars of God” must be the kings of the Davidic line who ruled from Mount Zion. The “king of Babylon” (or, the dynasty of Babylonian kings) indicated his ambition to lift up his throne “above the stars of God” by desiring to make the kings of the line of David mere vassals and then finally dethroning them. Like stars that shed light, the “king of Babylon” shone brightly in the ancient world and could be termed “shining one.”

SHION

(Shiʹon) [destruction, ruin].

A city of Issachar. (Josh. 19:17, 19) ʽAyun esh-Shaʽin, a few miles E of Nazareth, may preserve the name Shion and suggest its ancient situation.

SHIP

The Bible generally makes only incidental mention of ships, shipping and ship’s gear, but does afford some clues as to ships and boats of that time. Other description of ancient ships is derived from historical annals of various nations or in pictorial representations of merchant ships, marine battles, and so forth.

EGYPTIAN

Papyrus reeds, woven and lashed together, provided material for a wide variety of Egyptian boats, ranging from a small riverboat holding one or just a few hunters or fishermen and capable of being swiftly paddled along the Nile, to the large sailing vessel with upturned prow and the sturdiness to ply the open seas. The Ethiopians and the Babylonians likewise used reed vessels, Babylon also possessing a large fleet of galley ships.—See CANALS (Mesopotamia).

Egyptian annals speak of wooden ships more than 170 feet (52 meters) long. These may have been Phoenician trading vessels doing business with Egypt. However, the Egyptians are said to have later possessed naval dockyards where large vessels were built. A relief at Medinet Habu depicts a battle between Egyptian boats and certain ‘sea peoples,’ in which the Egyptian boats have a mast with a sail and a crow’s nest atop the mast. They are also powered by oars, with a large paddle at the stern for a rudder. The prow is fashioned in the figure of a lioness’ head having the body of an Asiatic person in its mouth. The ships of the ‘sea peoples’ are built similarly, but without oars, and having at both prow and stern a “duck head,” the bills of which would ram enemy ships.

Large ships with rectangular sails and more than twenty oars, probably having a center keel, made long journeys across the Mediterranean Sea. That ships already were plying the seas in the time of Moses is shown by Jehovah’s warning on the plains of Moab that, if disobedient, the Israelites would be brought “back to Egypt by ships,” there to be offered on the slave market.—Deut. 28:68.

PHOENICIAN

In picturing the city of Tyre as a pretty ship, the prophet Ezekiel (27:3-7) gave details that evidently provide a description of a Phoenician ship. It had planks of durable juniper, a single mast of cedar from Lebanon and oars of ‘massive trees’ from Bashan, probably oak. The prow, likely high and curved, was made of cypress wood inlaid with ivory. The sail was of colored Egyptian linen, and the deck covering (perhaps an awning above the deck to provide shade) was of dyed wool. The ship’s seams were calked. (Ezek. 27:27) The Phoenicians were skilled sailors, carrying on extensive trade in the Mediterranean area, even going as far as Tarshish (probably Spain). It is believed by some that in time the term “Tarshish ships” or “ships of Tarshish” came to signify the type of ship used by the Phoenicians in trading with that distant point, that is, a seaworthy vessel able to make a long voyage. (1 Ki. 22:48; Ps. 48:7; Isa. 2:16; Ezek. 27:25) Possibly Jonah fled on a ship of this type. It had a deck, allowing space in the hold for cargo and passengers.—Jonah 1:3, 5.

One of Sennacherib’s sculptures portrays a Phoenician ship with a superstructure deck, a double bank of oars, a sail, and a screen around the upper deck on which shields were hung. The prow of this fighting ship was long and pointed.

King David made an alliance with King Hiram of Tyre to supply wood for the temple to be built later by Solomon. To furnish the large cedar beams required, the Phoenicians brought cedar logs down from the Lebanon mountains (possibly by floating them