Shamir

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Sha'mir. (Point or Thorn).

1. A town in the mountain district of Judah. In  Joshua 15:48 only. It probably lay some eight or ten miles south of Hebron.

2. A place in Mount Ephraim, the residence and burial-place of Tola, the judge.  Judges 10:1-2. Perhaps Samur , half-way between Samaria and Jenin .

3. A Kohathite, son of Micah or Michal, the first-born of Uzziel.  1 Chronicles 24:24.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The residence of Tola, one of the judges, on Mount Ephraim ( Judges 10:1,2 ).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Shamir'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/s/shamir.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. Son of Michah, a Levite.  1 Chronicles 24:24 .

2. City in the mountains of Judah.   Joshua 15:48 . Identified by some with ruins at Somerah, 31 25' N, 34 56' E .

3. City in Mount Ephraim, the residence of Tola, one of the judges.   Judges 10:1,2 . Not identified.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Shamir . 1 . A Kohathite (  1 Chronicles 24:24 ). 2 . A town in the hill-country of Judah (  Joshua 15:48 ). It is perhaps Khurbet Sômerah , west of Debîr . 3 . The home and burial-place of Tola (  Judges 10:1-2 ). The site is uncertain.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Chronicles 24:24 Joshua 15:48 Judges 10:1

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Shamir', שָׁמיר , a sharp Point, as of a Thorn [text in Chronicles Shamur ' , שָׁמוּר , Tried ]; Sept. Σαμίρ , v.r. [in Joshua] Σαφείρ , [in Judges] Σαμαρεία , [in Chronicles] Σαμήρ ), the name of two places and of a man.

1. A town in the mountain district of Judah ( Joshua 15:48), where it is named in connection with Jattir and Socoh, in the group in the extreme south of the tribe, west of south from Hebron. Keil ( Comment. ad loc.) suggests that it may be the ruined site Um Shaumerah mentioned by Robinson ( Bib. Res. 1st ed. 3, Append. p. 115), which is perhaps the Somerah suggested by Lieut. Conder ( Tent Work In Palestine, 2 , 339), although the position of neither is exactly indicated. We venture to suggest its possible identity with the ruined village Simieh southwest of Hebron (Robinson, ibid. p. 116), and in the immediate vicinity required, being three miles west of Juttah.

2. A place in Mount Ephraim, the residence and burial place of Tola the judge ( Judges 10:1-2). It is singular that this judge, a man of Issachar, should have taken up his official residence out of his own tribe. We may account for it by supposing that the plain of Esdraelon, which formed the greater part of the territory of Issachar, was overrun, as in Gideon's time, by the Canaanites or other marauders; of whose incursions nothing whatever is told us — though their existence is certain — driving Tola to the more secure mountains of Ephraim. Or, as Manasseh had certain cities out of Issachar allotted to him, so Issachar, on the other hand, may have possessed some towns in the mountains of Ephraim. Both these suppositions, however, are but conjecture, and have no corroboration in any statement of the records.

Shamir is not mentioned by the ancient topographers. Schwarz (Palest. p. 151) proposes to identify it with Sanur, a place of great natural strength (which has some claims to be Bethulia), situated in the mountains, halfway between Samaria and Jenin, about eight miles from each. Van de Velde (Memoir, p. 348) proposes Khirbet Sammer, a ruined site in the mountains overlooking the Jordan valley, ten miles east southeast of Nablus. There is no connection between the names Shamir and Samaria, as proposed in the Alex. Sept. (see above), beyond the accidental one which arises from the inaccurate form of the latter in that version and in our own, it being correctly Shomron.

3. A Kohathite Levite, son of Michah, and a servant in the sanctuary in David's time ( 1 Chronicles 24:24). B.C. cir. 1020.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Shamir, 1

Sha´mir, a city of Judah .

Shamir, 2

Shamir, a city in the mountains of Ephraim, where Tola lived and was buried .