to Joppa on the sea coast, and eastward to the mountains of Judea; and
is celebrated for its wines, its flowers, and its pastures. It still
preserves some portions of its natural beauty, and is adorned in the
spring with the white and red rose, the narcissus, the white and orange
lily, the carnation and other flowers; but for the rest of the year it
appears little better than a desert, with here and there a ruined
village, and some clumps of olive trees and sycamores. This name was
almost become a proverb, to express a place of extraordinary beauty and
fruitfulness, Isaiah xxxiii, 9; xxxv, 2. But there are three cantons of
Palestine known by the name of Sharon. The first, according to Eusebius
and St. Jerom, is a canton between Mount Tabor and the sea of Tiberias.
The second, a canton between the city of Cæsarea of Palestine and Joppa.
And the third a canton beyond Jordan, in the country of Basan, and in
the division of the tribe of Gad. Modern travellers give this name also
to the plain that lies between Ecdippe and Ptolemais.
SHAVING. In time of mourning the Jews shaved their heads, and neglected
to trim their beards. The king of the Ammonites shaved off half the
beards of David’s ambassadors, which was the greatest insult he could
offer. This will appear from the regard which the easterns have ever
paid to the beard. D’Arvieux gives a remarkable instance of an Arab who,
having received a wound in his jaw, chose to hazard his life rather than
to suffer his surgeon to take off his beard. It was one of the most
infamous punishments of cowardice in Sparta, that they who turned their
backs in the day of battle were obliged to appear abroad with one half
of their beard shaved, and the other half unshaved. The easterns
considered the beard as venerable, because it distinguished men from
women, and was the mark of freemen in opposition to slaves. It was
still, in times comparatively modern, the greatest indignity that could
be offered in Persia. Shah Abbas, king of that country, enraged that the
emperor of Hindostan had inadvertently addressed him by a title far
inferior to that of the great shah-in-shah, or king of kings, ordered
the beards of the ambassadors to be shaved off, and sent them home to
their master. “One of the buffoons of the bashaw,” says Belzoni, “took
it into his head one day, for a frolic, to shave his beard, which is no
trifle among the Turks; for some of them, I really believe, would sooner
have their head cut off than their beard. In this state he went home to
his women, who actually thrust him out of the door; and such was the
disgrace of cutting off his beard, that even his fellow buffoons would
not eat with him till it was grown again.”
SHEAF. After the feast of the passover the Jews brought a sheaf into the
temple, as the first fruits of the barley harvest, Lev. xxiii, 10, 12;
and these were the ceremonies that were then performed. On the 16th of
the month Nisan, in the evening, when the feast day of the passover was
ended, and the second day was begun, which was a working day, the house
of judgment deputed three men to go in solemnity, and gather the sheaf
of barley. The inhabitants of the neighbouring cities came together, to
be present at the ceremony. The barley was gathered in the territory of
Jerusalem. The deputies demanded three times successively if the sun was
set; and were as often answered that it was. Then they demanded three
times if they might be permitted to cut the sheaf, and permission was as
often granted. They reaped it out of three different fields, with three
different sickels, and put the ears into three boxes to carry to the
temple. This sheaf was threshed in the court; and of the grain they took
a full omer, and after it had been winnowed, parched, and bruised, they
sprinkled oil over it, and added a handful of incense; then the priest
who received the offering, waved it before the Lord to the four quarters
of the world, crosswise; he cast part of it upon the altar, and the rest
was his own. After this every one might begin to reap the harvest.
SHEBA. Of “the queen of Sheba,” mention is made 1 Kings x, 1, 2, &c; 2
Chron. ix, 1, 2, &c; Matt. xii, 42; Luke xi, 31. She is called “queen of
the south,” and was, according to some, a queen of Arabia; and,
according to others, a queen of Ethiopia. Josephus says, that Sheba was
the ancient name of the city of Meroe, before Cambyses gave it that of
his sister; and that it was from thence the queen came of whom we are
speaking. This opinion has much prevailed. The Abyssinians at this day,
maintain, that this princess was of their country, and that her
posterity reigned there a long time. They preserve a catalogue of them,
their names and successions.
שח SHEEP, שה, occurs frequently, and צאן, a general name for both sheep
and goats, considered collectively in a flock, Arabic _zain_. The sheep
is a well known animal. The benefits which mankind owe to it are
numerous. Its fleece, its skin, its flesh, its tallow, and even its
horns and bowels are articles of great utility to human life and
happiness. Its mildness and inoffensiveness of temper, strongly
recommend it to human affection and regard; and have designated it the
pattern and emblem of meekness, innocence, patience, and submission. It
is a social animal. The flock follow the ram as their leader; who
frequently displays the most impetuous courage in their defence: dogs,
and even men, when attempting to molest them, have often suffered from
his sagacious and generous valour. There are two varieties of sheep
found in Syria. The first, called the “Bidoween sheep,” differs little
from the large breed among us, except that the tail is somewhat longer
and thicker. The second is much more common, and is more valued on
account of the extraordinary bulk of its tail, which has been remarked
by all the eastern travellers. The carcass of one of these sheep,
without including the head, feet, entrails, and skin, weighs from fifty
to sixty pounds, of which the tail makes up fifteen pounds. Some of a
larger size, fattened with care, will sometimes weigh one hundred and
fifty pounds, the tail alone composing one third of the whole weight. It
is of a substance between fat and marrow, and is not eaten separately,
but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and often also
used instead of butter. A reference to this part is made in Exod. xxix,
22; Lev. iii, 9; where the fat and the tail were to be burnt on the
altar of sacrifice. Mr. Street considers this precept to have had
respect to the health of the Israelites; observing that “bilious
disorders are very frequent in hot countries; the eating of fat meat is
a great encouragement and excitement to them; and though the fat of the
tail is now considered as a delicacy, it is really unwholesome.” The
conclusion of the seventeenth verse, which is, “Ye shall eat neither fat
nor blood,” justifies this opinion. The prohibition of eating fat, that
is of fat unmixed with the flesh, the omentum or caul, is given also,
Lev. vii, 23.
SHEKEL, שקל, signifies weight, money, shekel, _siclus_, a Hebrew weight
and money, Exod. xxx, 23, 24; 2 Sam. xiv, 26. Shekel is used to denote
the weight of any thing; as iron, hair, spices, &c. Dr. Arbuthnot makes
the weight of the shekel equal to 9 dwt. 2<sup>4</sup>⁄<sub>7</sub> gr.
English troy weight; and the value equal to 2s. 3⅜d. sterling money: but
the golden shekel was worth 1_l._ 16_s._ 6_d._ English money. Some are
of opinion that the Jews had two kinds of shekels, namely, the common
one already noticed, and the shekel of the sanctuary, which last they
make double the former. But most authors make them the same, and think
that the word sanctuary is added to express a just and exact weight,
according to the standards kept in the temple or tabernacle. Moses, Num.
xviii, 16, and Ezekiel, xlv, 12, say, that the shekel was worth twenty
gerahs.
SHEM, the son of Noah, Gen. vi, 10. He was born A. M. 1558. It is the
opinion of the generality of commentators, that Shem was younger than
Japheth, and the second son of Noah, for reasons given under the article
JAPHETH. See also Gen. ix, 23–25. He lived six hundred years, and died
A. M. 2158. The posterity of Shem obtained their portion in the best
parts of Asia. The Jews ascribe to Shem the theological tradition of the
things that Noah had learned from the first men. Shem communicated them
to his children, and by this means the true religion was preserved in
the world. Some have thought Shem the same as Melchisedec, and that he
himself had been at the school of Methuselah before the deluge: that he
gave to Abraham the whole tradition, the ceremonies of the sacrifices of
religion, according to which this patriarch afterward offered his
sacrifices. But this opinion has no adequate support. Lastly, the Jews
say, that he taught men the law of justice, and the manner of reckoning
months and years, and the intercalations of the months. All that can be
said as to these speculations is, that Noah and all his sons were the
depositaries of the knowledge which existed among men before the flood,
and were perhaps both specially qualified by God first to attain it, and
then to transmit it to their descendants. Shem had five sons, Elam,
Asher, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aran, who peopled the richest provinces of
Asia.
SHEPHERDS. The patriarchal shepherds, rich in flocks and herds, in
silver and gold, and attended by a numerous train of servants purchased
with their money, or hired from the neighbouring towns and villages,
acknowledge no civil superior; they held the rank, and exercised the
rights, of sovereign princes; they concluded alliances with the kings in
whose territories they tended their flocks; they made peace or war with
the surrounding states; and, in fine, they wanted nothing of sovereign
authority but the name. Unfettered by the cumbrous ceremonies of regal
power, they led a plain and laborious life, in perfect freedom and
overflowing abundance. Refusing to confine themselves to any particular
spot, (for the pastures were not yet appropriated,) they lived in tents,
and removed from one place to another in search of pasture for their
cattle. Strangers in the countries where they sojourned, they refused to
mingle with the permanent settlers, to occupy their towns, and to form
with them one people. They were conscious of their strength, and jealous
of their independence; and although patient and forbearing, their
conduct proved, on several occasions, that they wanted neither skill nor
courage to vindicate their rights and avenge their wrongs. In the
wealth, the power, and the splendour of patriarchal shepherds, we
discover the rudiments of regal grandeur and authority; and in their
numerous and hardy retainers, the germ of potent empires. Hence the
custom so prevalent among the ancients, of distinguishing the office and
duties of their kings and princes, by terms borrowed from the pastoral
life: Agamemnon, shepherd of the people, Αγαμεμνονα ποιμενα λαων, is a
phrase frequently used in the strains of Homer. The sacred writers very
often speak of kings under the name of shepherds, and compare the royal
sceptre to the shepherd’s crook: “He chose David also his servant, and
took him from the sheep folds; from following the ewes great with young,
he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So
he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by
the skilfulness of his hands.” And Jehovah said to David himself: “Thou
shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.”
The royal Psalmist, on the other hand, celebrates under the same
allusions, the special care and goodness of God toward himself, and also
toward his ancient people. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
“Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock;
thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.” In many other
places of Scripture, the church is compared to a sheep fold, the saints
to sheep, and the ministers of religion to shepherds, who must render,
at last, an account of their administration to the Shepherd and Overseer
to whom they owe their authority.
The patriarchs did not commit their flocks and herds solely to the care
of menial servants and strangers; they tended them in person, or placed
them under the superintendence of their sons and their daughters, who
were bred to the same laborious employment, and taught to perform,
without reluctance, the meanest services. Rebecca, the only daughter of
a shepherd prince, went to a considerable distance to draw water; and it
is evident, from the readiness and address with which she let down her
pitcher from her shoulder, and gave drink to the servant of Abraham, and
afterward drew for all his camels, that she had been long accustomed to
that humble employment. From the same authority we know that Rachel, the
daughter of Laban, kept her father’s flocks, and submitted to the
various privations and hardships of the pastoral life, in the deserts of
Syria. The patriarch Jacob, though he was the son of a shepherd prince,
kept the flocks of Laban, his maternal uncle; and his own sons followed
the same business, both in Mesopotamia, and after his return to the land
of Canaan. This primeval simplicity was long retained among the Greeks.
Homer often sends the daughters of princes and nobles to tend the
flocks, to wash the clothes of the family at the fountain, or in the
flowing stream, and to perform many other menial services. Adonis, the
son of Cinyras, a king of Cyprus, fed his flocks by the streaming
rivers:
_Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis._
VIR. Ecl. x, l. 18.
“Along the streams his flock Adonis fed.”
DRYDEN.
Andromache, the wife of Hector, complains that Achilles had slain her
seven brothers when they were tending their flocks and herds. Æneas
pastured his oxen on Mount Ida, when Achilles seized them, and forced
the Trojan hero to flee. Phœbus himself was a keeper of oxen in the
groves and valleys of Mount Ida. This custom has descended to modern
times; for in Syria the daughters of the Turcoman and Arabian shepherds,
and in India the Brahmin women of distinction, are seen drawing water at
the village wells, and tending their cattle to the lakes and rivers.
The flocks and herds of these shepherds were immensely numerous. The
sheep of the Bedoween Arabs in Egypt, and probably throughout the east,
are very fine, black-faced and white-faced, and many of them clothed in
a brown coloured fleece: and of this superior breed the ample flocks of
the Syrian shepherds consisted. So great was the stock of Abraham and
Lot, that they were obliged to separate, because “the land was not able
to bear them.” From the present which Jacob made to his brother Esau,
consisting of five hundred and eighty head of different sorts, we may
form some idea of the countless numbers of great and small cattle which
he had acquired in the service of Laban. In modern times, the numbers of
cattle in the Turcoman flocks, which feed on the fertile plains of
Syria, are almost incredible. They sometimes occupy three or four days
in passing from one part of the country to another. Chardin had an
opportunity of seeing a clan of Turcoman shepherds on their march, about
two days’ distance from Aleppo. The whole country was covered with them.
Many of their principal people with whom he conversed on the road,
assured him, that there were four hundred thousand beasts of carriage,
camels, horses, oxen, cows, and asses, and three millions of sheep and
goats. This astonishing account of Chardin is confirmed by Dr. Shaw, who
states, that several Arabian tribes, who can bring no more than three or
four hundred horses into the field, are possessed of more than as many
thousand camels, and triple the number of sheep and black cattle.
Russel, in his “History of Aleppo,” speaks of vast flocks which pass
that city every year, of which many sheep are sold to supply the
inhabitants. The flocks and herds which belonged to the Jewish
patriarchs were not more numerous.
The care of such overgrown flocks, says Paxton, required many shepherds.
These were of different kinds; the master of the family and his
children, with a number of herdsmen who were hired to assist them, and
felt but little interest in the preservation and increase of their
charge. In Hebrew, these persons, so different in station and feeling,
were not distinguished by appropriate names; the master, the slave, and
the hired servant, were all known by the common appellation of
shepherds. The distinction, not sufficiently important to require the
invention of a particular term, is expressed among every people by a
periphrasis. The only instance in the Old Testament, in which the hired
servant is distinguished from the master, or one of his family, occurs
in the history of David, where he is said to have left the sheep, על
שומר, “in the hand of a keeper,” while he went down to visit his
brethren, and the armies who were fighting against the Philistines under
the banners of Saul, 1 Samuel xvii, 20. This word exactly corresponds
with the Latin term _custos_, “a keeper,” which Virgil uses to denote a
hireling shepherd, in his tenth Eclogue:
_Atque utinam ex vobis unus vestrique fuissem,_
_Aut custos gregis, aut maturæ vinitor uvæ._
“O that your birth and business had been mine,
To feed the flock and prune the spreading vine!”
WHARTON.
In such extensive pastoral concerns, the vigilance and activity of the
master were often insufficient for directing the operations of so many
shepherds, who were not unfrequently scattered over a considerable
extent of country. An upper servant was therefore appointed to
superintend their labours, and take care that his master suffered no
injury. In the house of Abraham, this honourable station was held by
Eliezer, a native of Damascus, a servant in every respect worthy of so
great and good a master. The numerous flocks of Pharaoh seem to have
required the superintending care of many overseers, Gen. xlvii, 6. Doeg,
an Edomite, was entrusted with the whole pastoral establishment of Saul,
1 Sam. xxi, 7. But in the reign of David, the important office of chief
herdsman was abolished, and the vast flocks and herds of that monarch
were entrusted to a number of superintendents; animals of the same
species forming a separate flock, under its proper overseer, 1
Chronicles xxvii, 29. These overseers, in the language of the Hebrews,
were called the princes of the flock; they were treated with great
distinction, and seem to have been selected in the reign of David from
among the nobles of his court. Eumæus, a person of noble birth,
agreeably to this custom, was charged with the care of the herds of
swine belonging to Ulysses. The office of chief shepherd is frequently
mentioned by the classic authors of antiquity. Diodorus relates from
Ctesias, that Simma was overseer of the royal flocks under Ninus, king
of Assyria. According to Plutarch, one Samo managed the flocks and herds
of Neoptolemus, the king of the Molossians. The office of chief shepherd
was also known among the Latins; for, in the seventh Æneid, Tyrrheus is
named as governor of the royal flocks:
_Tyrrheusque pater, cui regia parent_
_Armenta, et late custodia credita camp._
“Their father, Tyrrheus, did his fodder bring;
Tyrrheus, chief ranger to the Latian king.”
DRYDEN.
And Livy informs us, that Faustulus held the same office under Numitor,
king of the Latins. But it is needless to multiply quotations; every
scholar knows that the Greek and Roman classics abound with allusions to
this office, which in those days was one of great importance and
dignity, on the faithful discharge of which the power and splendour of
an eastern potentate greatly depended. The office of chief shepherd,
therefore, being in pastoral countries one of great trust, of high
responsibility, and of distinguished honour, is with great propriety
applied to our Lord by the Apostle Peter: “And when the chief shepherd
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away,”
1 Peter v, 4. The same allusion occurs in these words of Paul: “Now the
God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will,” Hebrews
xiii, 20.
SHIBBOLETH, “an ear of corn,” was a word which the Gileadites used as
the test of an Ephraimite. For the Ephraimites could not, from disuse,
pronounce the Hebrew letter _shin_; therefore, they said Sibboleth
instead of Shibboleth, Judges xii, 6. The Greeks, says Hartley, have not
the sound _sh_ in their language: hence they are liable to be detected,
like the Ephraimites. I was struck with this circumstance, in learning
Turkish from a Greek tutor; _pasha_, he pronounced _pasa_; _shimdi_, he
called _simdi_; _Dervish_, _Dervis_, &c. _Shibboleth_ he would, of
course, pronounce _Sibboleth_.
SHIELD. See ARMS.
SHILOH, Gen. xlix, 10. The Hebrew text is, “until Shiloh come.” All
Christian commentators agree, that this word ought to be understood of
the Messiah, that is, of Jesus Christ. The LXX. read it, “Until the
coming of him to whom it is reserved.” It must be owned that the
signification of the Hebrew word Shiloh is not well known. Some
translate the clause, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till he
comes to whom it belongs;” others, “till the coming of the peacemaker,
or the pacific, or prosperity;” and some, “The sceptre shall not depart
from Judah till its end, its ruin,” till the downfall of the kingdom of
the Jews. However, this much is clear, that the ancient Jews are in this
matter agreed with the Christians, in acknowledging that the word stands
for Messiah, the King. It is thus that the paraphrasts, Onkelos and
Jonathan, and the ancient Hebrew commentaries upon Genesis, and the
Talmudists explain it. If Jesus Christ and his Apostles did not make use
of this passage to prove the coming of the Messiah, it was because then
the completion of this prophecy was not sufficiently manifest. The
sceptre still continued among the Jews; they had still kings of their
own nation, in the persons of the Herods; but soon after the sceptre was
entirely taken away from them, and a people began to be gathered to
Christ, out of the Gentile nations.
2. SHILOH, a celebrated city of the tribe of Ephraim, twelve miles from
Shechem, Joshua xviii, xix, xxi. It was in this place that the
tabernacle of the Lord was set up, when the people were settled in the
country. The ark and the tabernacle of the Lord continued at Shiloh from
A. M. 2560 till 2888, when it was taken by the Philistines, under the
administration of the high priest Eli, 1 Sam. iv. Here the Prophet
Ahijah dwelt, 1 Kings xiv, 2.
SHINAR, a province of Babylonia, where men undertook to build the tower
of Babel, Genesis xi, 2; x, 10. Calneh was built in this country.
Amraphel was king of Shinar in the days of Abraham, Genesis xiv, 1. See
BABYLON.
SHISHAK, king of Egypt, declared war against Rehoboam in the fifth year
of the reign of that prince, 2 Chron. xii, 2, 3, &c. This Shishak,
according to Sir Isaac Newton, was the greatest conqueror, and the most
celebrated hero, of all antiquity, being the son of Ammon, or the
Egyptian Jupiter, and known to the Greeks by the name of Bacchus,
Osiris, and Hercules; was the Belus of the Chaldeans, and the Mars or
Mavors of the Thracians, &c. He made great conquests in India, Assyria,
Media, Scythia, Phenicia, Syria, Judea, &c. His army was at last routed
in Greece by Perseus; which, with other circumstances, compelled him to
return home.