SHIMEATHITES shĭm’ ĭ ə thīts (שִׁמְעָתִ֖ים; LXX Σαμαθιειμ). A reference to one of three families of scribes who lived at Jabez (1 Chron 2:55), and who were descendants of Caleb. Jabez is identified as one of a group of towns in the vicinity of Bethlehem and the Valley of Elah. They are identified also as Kenites who came from the line of Hamath, father of the house of Rechab. The passage is obscure, as the Kenites were a tribe of seminomadic metal workers, first noted in the Wadi Arabah, toward Tell ’Arad (Num 24:21; Judg 1:16), and who seem to have entered the Palestinian locale in company with the tribe of Judah (cf. 1 Sam 15:6), which accounts for their settling with them. Intermarriage and the broadened usage of names may help explain some obscurities.

Bibliography Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 226, 227.