Shema
Shema is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tel Beer Sheva. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Shema appears in the Old Testament exclusively in Joshua 15:26, listed among the cities allocated to the tribe of Judah in the Negev, the southernmost portion of the tribal territory. It is enumerated within a cluster of towns in the southernmost district of Judah, alongside Moladah, Hazar-shual, and Beersheba. The name Shema (sometimes rendered Sheba in parallel lists) designates a settled community in the arid zone south of the Judean highlands. Although the city receives no further narrative attention in Scripture, its inclusion in the tribal allotment list demonstrates that Judah's territory extended well into the northern Negev. The towns of this region served as frontier settlements guarding access routes between Egypt and Canaan. The Negev settlements listed in Joshua 15 represent an administrative geography that scholars believe reflects real Iron Age occupation patterns in the region. The identification of Shema with Tel Beer Sheva places it at one of the most strategically important sites in the ancient southern Levant.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tel Beer Sheva (Tell es-Saba) has been extensively excavated, most notably by Yohanan Aharoni in the 1960s-70s and by subsequent teams. The site preserves a remarkably well-planned Iron Age city with an elaborate water system, governor's residence, storehouses, and a distinctive horned altar (now partially reconstructed). Occupation layers span the Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods. Tel Beer Sheva is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its identification with biblical Shema remains one among several proposals for this lightly attested city; some scholars associate the name more closely with nearby sites such as Khirbet Sama. The broader region confirms robust Iron Age settlement consistent with the Joshua allotment lists.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]