שִׁמְעָא
shim.ah, shim.a
Shimea
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Shimea: A Biblical Name with Limited Attestation Based on the lexical data provided, Shimea (שִׁמְעָא) is a proper noun—a personal name—appearing only once in the biblical text. As a name rather than a common word, it does not carry semantic meaning in the way typical Hebrew vocabulary does, but rather functions as an identifier for a specific individual in the biblical narrative. The extremely limited occurrence of this name (just a single attestation) restricts what can be determined about its broader significance or usage patterns within Scripture. Unlike words that appear multiple times and show variation in context, a hapax legomenon such as this provides minimal data for establishing its prominence or role in biblical literature. The name may derive from Hebrew roots related to "hearing" or "fame" (common elements in Israelite naming practices), but such etymological speculation exceeds what the lexicon entry itself demonstrates. For practical purposes, readers encountering Shimea in their biblical reading would recognize it simply as the name of one person in the scriptural record, without sufficient textual evidence to determine whether this figure held particular theological or historical importance. The single occurrence leaves open the question of whether Shimea was a significant figure whose name warranted preservation in the text, or simply one among many individuals mentioned incidentally.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text