Shimeam (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Shimeah. SHIMEATH (u-~.v or nics*; LXX in 2 Kings 'k/ioi/dtf, B in 2 Chron. -a;i«i, A ZafiAO, Luc. 'XaimiB). — One of the murderers of king Joash of Judah is called son of Shimeath (2 K 12-' (Ileb. ^2), 2Ch 24««). His own name in 1 Kings is given as Jozacar. But the evidence of 2 Chron., and in a less degree the witness of Heb. MSS, suggest that the name was originally Jehozahad (see JozACAR). This is tlie name of the second assassin also.

It is there- fore signilicant that in the text of 2 Chron. the one is njcc^p and the other n•^c;;-I2. It becomes highly probable that the historian nanu?'' one assassin only, and tliat a second has been createil by dittography and textual corruption. If so, Ishimeath is probably the original of tho variants Shomer, Shimrith, and Shiinentli. In the present text of 2 Chron. Shimeath is plainly a woman, an Ammonitess.

But in the light of the hypothesis here maintained there is equal reason to adopt the alternative ' Moabite ' from tlie following clause, and tlio one throws doubt on the other. Probably Sliimeath's Amnionite nationality belongs to a later amplilication of the iiariative.

It is then most natural to sup|>()se that the lather of Jozacar (Jehozabad) was named Shimeath, and nut his I mother, voe' * to hear ' is the root of a number ol 502 SHIMEATUITES SHLMOX proper names both in Hebrew and the cognate lan<;uages (Shiiuea, Shimei, etc.) W. B. Stevenson.