Shammua meaning

Meaning

Renowned, Hearing

Etymology

From the verb שמע (shama'), to hear.

Related names

• Via שמע (shama'): Elishama, Ishmael, Ishmaiah, Mishma, Samuel, Shama, Shema, Shemaah, Shemaiah, Shimea, Shimeath, Shimeathites, Shimei, Simeon, Simon

There are three or four different men named Shammua in the Bible:

• A son of Zaccur of Reuben, who is the first mentioned of the twelve spies whom Moses dispatched to scout out Canaan (Numbers 13:4). The fifth spy mentioned is Hoshea son of Nun, who was renamed Joshua by Moses (Numbers 13:8, 13:16).
• A son of king David and Bath-shua. This Shammua was a full brother of Solomon and Nathan, who all were born in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:14). In 1 Chronicles 3:5 this person is called שמעא (Shimea).
• The father of Abda (עבדא), who was one of the Levites who resettled Jerusalem after the return from the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 11:17). This Shammua's father is called Galal and his grandfather is Jeduthun. In 1 Chronicles 9:16, we meet probably the same Jeduthun, whose son is called Galal. But here Galal's son is called Shemaiah (שמעיה), and his son is called Obadiah (עבדיה). These people are probably the same but it's not clear why Nehemiah spelled their names without the yah-extension.
• The head of the household of Bilgah in the time of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, who was the high priest during the return from exile (Nehemiah 12:18). Some scholars (Alfred Jones of the Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) maintain that this Shammua and the previous one are the same person, but there is nothing in the text that indicates this is true. In fact, the name Bilgah does not occur in the four-generation micro-genealogy mentioned by Nehemiah and the Chronicler, and if these four were "of the house of Bilgah," we would probably have heard about it. Hence other scholars (NOBSE Study Bible) declare the two separate. And then there are those scholars (BDB Theological Dictionary) who feel that there is no evidence to support either position. Hence BDB states: "?same person".

The name Shammua comes from the verb שמע (shama'), meaning to hear:

For a meaning of the name Shammua, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Renowned. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Hearing. BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an interpretation of our name but does list it under the verb שמע (shama'), meaning to hear.