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שמע

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Etymology and origin of the Biblical Hebrew word שמע

שמע1 to hear

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
500s BC Lachish ostraca
Inherited from
Proto-Semitic *šamiʕ-
Ultimate origin
Proto-Semitic *šamiʕ-

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: šāmaʿ, pausal šāmēaʿ[1][2]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: šāma, imperfect yišma[3]

Forms

שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ) verb[1] The qal is used about 1,050 times, the niphal 43 times and the hiphil 63 times, and the piel is rare.[4] Imperfect יִשְׁמַע, imperative שְׁמַע, infinitive construct שְׁמֹעַ, participle שֹׁמֵעַ.[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *šamiʕ- (“to hear”),[5] and the root *šmʿ (“to hear”) is found all through Semitic.[6] The verb is kept in Akkadian šemû (Assyrian šamāʾu),[7][4] Ugaritic šmʕ,[8][9] Phoenician šmʿ,[4][2] Aramaic שְׁמַע (šəmaʿ), Classical Syriac ܫܡܰܥ (šmaʿ),[2][10] Arabic سَمِعَ (samiʿa),[11][5] Sabaean smʿ and Ge'ez ሰምዐ (samʿa).[2][4] The Mesha inscription has the noun Moabite משמעת (mšmʿt, “obedience”).[2][12] HALOT also compares Egyptian sḏm (“to hear”), with the consonants in another order.[4]

The verb is common in names: Huehnergard derives the name Ishmael from יִשְׁמָעֵאל (yišmāʿēʾl, “God heard”), with the old preterite of the verb.[13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated records are the Lachish letters, ostraca of the 6th century BC:[14] several of them open with yšmʿ, the hiphil jussive “may he cause to hear”, in a greeting formula that the Bible does not use.[4][15][16][17] In the Bible the verb is used 1,159 times, 15 of them in the poems that Sáenz-Badillos counts as archaic.[1][18] The Blessing of Jacob opens hiqqāḇəṣû wəšimʿû bənê yaʿăqōḇ, “gather and hear, sons of Jacob” (Genesis 49:2), and in the Song of the Sea šāməʿû ʿammîm yirgāzûn, “the peoples have heard, they tremble” (Exodus 15:14).[1]

Semantic evolution

HALOT sorts the qal into hearing with the ears, listening to someone, hearing and granting a request (of God, who “hears the voice” of the one who prays), hearing in the sense of obeying, and hearing in the sense of understanding, as of a language in Genesis 11:7.[4] The sense “obey”, mostly with bəqôl “to the voice of”, matches Akkadian, where šemû also means “to obey”,[4][7] and Tawil lists Akkadian parallels for the image of ears that hear nothing (Jeremiah 5:21).[19] The niphal is the passive “be heard, be listened to”, the piel means “to summon” (1 Samuel 15:4), and the hiphil “to cause to hear”, that is, to announce, to proclaim, and, of musicians, to play aloud (1 Chronicles 15:16).[4][2] The imperative šəmaʿ yiśrāʾēl, “Hear, Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:4), gave the Shema its name.[1][13]

The Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek ἀκούω (akoúō) and εἰσακούω (eisakoúō).[1] The verb is used about a thousand times in the Dead Sea Scrolls,[20] and in Rabbinic Hebrew it also means “to understand, infer”.[21] The Biblical Aramaic verb šəmaʿ is used nine times in Daniel.[1] Modern Hebrew שמע (shamá) is the usual Modern Hebrew verb for “to hear”.[5]

Timeline

  • 6th century BC – yšmʿ in the greeting of the Lachish letters.[14][4][15]
  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – the Blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49:2) and the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:14).[18][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – 442 of the biblical uses are in Genesis to Kings.[1]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek ἀκούω (akoúō).[22][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – about a thousand uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[23][20]

Meanings

Verb

  1. qal to hear a sound or a voice with the ears.[4][2]
  2. qal to listen to, to pay attention to someone.[4]
  3. qal (of God) to hear and grant a prayer or a request.[4]
  4. qal to obey, to heed (with bəqôl).[4][2]
  5. qal to understand (a language).[4]
  6. niphal to be heard; to be listened to.[4]
  7. piel to summon (the people).[4]
  8. hiphil to cause to hear; to proclaim, announce; to play aloud (of musicians).[4][2]

Word family

  • שְׁמוּעָה (šəmûʿâ)
  • מִשְׁמַעַת (mišmaʿaṯ)
  • מִשְׁמָע (mišmāʿ)

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew שמע (shamá)[5]

שמע2 report, news

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Hebrew Bible (Psalm 18, Habakkuk 3)
Ultimate origin
Proto-Semitic *šamiʕ-

Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: šēmaʿ[1][24]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: šāma[3]

Forms

שֵׁמַע (šēmaʿ) noun, masculine, plural שְׁמָעִים[1][5] With suffixes שִׁמְעִי, שִׁמְעֲךָ, שִׁמְעָהּ, שִׁמְעָם.[25][24]

Etymology

The noun for “report” is a derivation from Biblical Hebrew שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ, “to hear”), formed with the qeṭel pattern of nouns.[25][5][26] Syriac has the same noun, Classical Syriac ܫܸܡܥܵܐ (šemʿā, “hearing, news”), which the Peshitta uses for the news about Jacob in Genesis 29:13.[10] HALOT adds the Jewish Aramaic, Mandaic, Ge'ez and Arabic nouns of the root for “report” and “reputation”.[25]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is used 17 times in the Bible, twice in poems that Sáenz-Badillos counts as archaic.[1][18] In David's song (Psalm 18:45, as in 2 Samuel 22) foreigners submit ləšēmaʿ ʾōzen, “as soon as the ear hears”, that is, at the first news of him, and Habakkuk's prayer begins YHWH šāmaʿtî šimʿăḵā, “YHWH, I have heard the report of you” (Habakkuk 3:2).[1][25][24]

Semantic evolution

Most uses are the news about someone, the object of the verb šāmaʿ: Laban hears the news of Jacob (Genesis 29:13), the queen of Sheba the fame of Solomon (1 Kings 10:1).[25][24] A law forbids spreading šēmaʿ šāwʾ, a false report (Exodus 23:1).[24] In Job 42:5 hearsay is set against seeing with one's own eyes.[25] The Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek ἀκοή (akoḗ).[1] The noun is kept as Modern Hebrew שמע (shéma).[5]

Timeline

  • Archaic Hebrew poetry – ləšēmaʿ ʾōzen in Psalm 18:45 and šimʿăḵā in Habakkuk 3:2.[18][1]
  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – the news of Jacob (Genesis 29:13) and the fame of Solomon (1 Kings 10:1).[25]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek ἀκοή (akoḗ).[22][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 16 uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[23][20]

Meanings

Noun

  1. hearsay, hearing: šēmaʿ ʾōzen, what is known only by hearing.[25][24]
  2. a report, news, tidings about someone.[25][24]
  3. fame, what is told of a person.[25]

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew שמע (shéma)[5]

Usage notes

A noun šōmaʿ with the same meaning, “report, fame”, is used four times (Joshua 6:27, 9:9, Jeremiah 6:24, Esther 9:4).[1][27][28] A noun šemaʿ “sound” is found only in Psalm 150:5, ṣilṣəlê-šāmaʿ, clear-sounding cymbals.[29][30][31] Shema is also a personal name in Chronicles and Nehemiah, and a place in Judah.[32][33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. שָׁמַע
  3. ^ a b Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. שׁמע
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 32
  7. ^ a b Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. šemû
  8. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. š-m-ʕ
  9. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 249
  10. ^ a b Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 1574
  11. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 1427
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. שׁמע
  13. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. s.v. šmʿ
  14. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 79
  15. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.002.1
  16. ^ Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.003.2
  17. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 81
  18. ^ a b c d Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
  19. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 412
  20. ^ a b c Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
  21. ^ Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. שָׁמַע
  22. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  23. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
  24. ^ a b c d e f g Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. שֵׁמַע
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. שֵׁמַע
  26. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. שֵׁמַע
  27. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. שֹׁמַע
  28. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. שֹׁמַע
  29. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. שֶׁמַע I
  30. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. שֶׁמַע
  31. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. שֶׁמַע
  32. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. שֶׁמַע II
  33. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. שְׁמַע

Derived terms

Related etymologies

  • אבן · also from Proto-Semitic
  • כשר · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גן · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גוי · also from Proto-Semitic
  • יובל · also from Proto-Semitic
  • גמל · also from Proto-Semitic
  • שק · also from Proto-Semitic
  • אתון · also from Proto-Semitic
Cite this entry

“שמע.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/hbo/%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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