the Fourth Week of Advent
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Shemaiah
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or 1. A prophet under Rehoboam, commissioned to charge the king and his 180,000 warriors of Judah not to fight against their brethren of Israel, but to return every man to his house, instead of striving to regain northern Israel from Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:22; 2 Chronicles 11:2), for that the severance is Jehovah's doing; so they desisted in obedience to the Lord. Upon Rehoboam and his people forsaking Jehovah, and building high places, standing images, and groves, God sent Shishak of Egypt against Jerusalem; he then took all the fenced cities, and Shemaiah told Rehoboam and his princes, "thus saith Jehovah, Ye have forsaken Me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." The princes then humbled themselves, saying, The Lord is righteous (Psalms 51:4; Leviticus 26:43). When Jehovah saw they humbled themselves He declared by Shemaiah, "I will not destroy them but grant them some deliverance, and My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak" (See REHOBOAM.) Shemaiah wrote a chronicle of Rehoboam's reign.
2. 1 Chronicles 3:22. The words (1 Chronicles 3:21) "the sons of Rephaiah" to the end of the chapter are a genealogical fragment inserted subsequently; the copula is wanting before "the sons of Rephaiah"; their connection with Zerubbabel's descendants who are mentioned before is not stated (Nehemiah 3:29).
3. 1 Chronicles 4:37.
4. 1 Chronicles 5:4.
5. Nehemiah 11:15-16.
6. 1 Chronicles 9:16; SHAMMUA, Nehemiah 11:17.
7. 1 Chronicles 15:8; 1 Chronicles 15:11.
8. 1 Chronicles 24:6.
9. 1 Chronicles 26:1; 1 Chronicles 26:4; 1 Chronicles 26:6-7.
10. 2 Chronicles 29:14.
11. Ezra 8:13.
12. Ezra 8:16.
13. Ezra 10:21.
14. Ezra 10:31.
15. Son of Delaiah; a prophet bribed by Sanballat and Tobiah to frighten Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:10, etc.); Shemaiah pretended to be "shut up" through fear, his action corroborating his word, and proposed all should meet in the temple and shut its doors; Nehemiah heroically replied, "should such a man as I flee?" (compare Psalms 11:1.) Shemaiah's aim was to entrap Nehemiah into sinful fear, so as to have matter of "evil reproach" against him.
16. Nehemiah 10:8; Nehemiah 12:6; Nehemiah 12:18; Nehemiah 12:35.
17. Nehemiah 12:34.
18. Nehemiah 12:36.
19. Nehemiah 12:42.
20. The Nehelamite, a false prophet at Babylon, who wrote urging Zephaniah the deputy priest to show his gratitude to God for his promotion to Jehoiada's place by exercising his power in imprisoning Jeremiah as "mad" (compare 2 Kings 9:11; Matthew 21:23; Acts 26:24; John 10:20 the Antitype) and putting him in stocks, because he had recommended the Jewish captives at Babylon to build, plant, and settle there as for a long time, in opposition to those who flattered them with promises of a speedy release. Jeremiah on hearing Shemaiah's letter read by Zephaniah, who was less prejudiced against him, declared from Jehovah, "Shemaiah shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good" (namely, the future restoration from Babylon), "because he caused you to trust a lie" and "hath taught rebellion against Jehovah," namely, against God's revealed will as to the time of the restoration (Jeremiah 29:24-32, compare Jeremiah 29:10; Jeremiah 28:16).
21. 2 Chronicles 17:8.
22. 2 Chronicles 31:15.
23. A Levite at Josiah's Passover (2 Chronicles 35:9); Conaniah his brother's name occurs in Hezekiah's time, as also Shemaiah, for the same names recur in different generations.
24. Jeremiah 26:20.
25. Jeremiah 36:12.
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Shemaiah'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/s/shemaiah.html. 1949.
