SHEMER she’ mər (שֶׁ֖מֶר; LXX Σαμηρ, meaning uncertain; perhaps watch). 1. Owner of a hill purchased by Omri as the site for a city he called Samaria (after שֹׁמְרֹ֛ון, “belonging to Shemer”) (1 Kings 16:24).

2. Merarite forebear of a singer placed in the Temple at Jerusalem by David (1 Chron 6:46).

3. A descendant of Asher, named in the genealogical lists (1 Chron 7:34; called “Shomer” in v. 32).

Place-name studies of Samaria (“Shomeron”) indicate that it may be connected with the city’s fortifications, constructed by Shemer. Identification has also been proposed with Shamir (Judg 10:1), the lifetime home of a judge named Tola.

Bibliography G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1906), 346; F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, II (1938), 444; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 98, 223.