Shamir

a sharp thorn.

Shamer

(n point or thorn. )

1. A town in the mountain district of Judah. ( 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 Judges 10:2 ) 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 )

SHAMIR (1)

sha'-mer (shamir; Sameir):

(1) Mentioned along with Jattir and Socoh (Joshua 15:48) as one of the cities of Judah in the hill country. Possibly it is Khirbet (or Umm) Somerah, 2,000 ft. above sea-level, a site with ancient walls, caves, cisterns and tombs not far West of Debir (edh Dhatheriyeh) and 2 miles North of Anab (`Anab) (Palestine Exploration Fund, III, 262, 286, Sh XX).

(2) A place in the hill country of Ephraim (Judges 10:1) from which came "Tola, the son of Pual, a man of Issachar," who judged Israel 23 years; he died and was buried there. It is an attractive theory (Schwartz) which would identify the place with the semi-fortified and strongly-placed town of Sanur on the road from Nablus to Jenin. A local chieftain in the early part of the last century fortified Sanur and from there dominated the whole district. That Sanur could hardly have been within the bounds of Issachar is an objection, but not necessarily a fatal one. It is noticeable that the Septuagint's Codex Alexandrinus has Samareia, for Shamir (Palestine Exploration Fund, II, Sh XI).

E. W. G. Masterman

SHAMIR (2)

(shamir; Samer):

A Kohathite, son of Micah (1 Chronicles 24:24).