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שֹׁמְרוֹן

Samaria

BDB lists 3 entries for ‘Samaria’ fuller range ↓

H8111 Strong's Hebrew
Shômᵉrôwn Transliteration
/sho-mer-one'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 109 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

The Hebrew name שמרון centers on the idea of “Samaria.” Debuting at 1 Kings 13:32, it then recurs through the corpus. It appears 101 verses across 11 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. The word gravitates to 2 Kings (44%), then 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. For the data behind this summary, explore 101-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
Samaria
Modern gloss
Samaria
Strong's 1890 agrees
Strong's 1890 and current BDB scholarship align on this entry's primary sense — a good signal that the gloss above is unambiguous and stable. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H8111 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

101
distinct verses
The word appears in 101 distinct verses.
11 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
1 Kings 13:32
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in 1 Kings 13:32.
Micah 1:6
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Micah 1:6.
#398
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 398 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 101 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 0 · 0%
  • Historical 70 · 69%
  • Wisdom 0 · 0%
  • Prophets 31 · 31%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 101 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 92 verses · 91%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 9%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

  • King James Version: Samaria 99×, Is in samaria 2×, Is samaria 2×
  • American Standard Version: Samaria 91×, Is samaria 2×, Returned to samaria 2×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Samaria 97×, Is in samaria 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Samaria 101×, Is in samaria 2×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H8111 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Samaria” 99×
  • “Is in samaria” 2×
  • “Is samaria” 2×

Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H8111 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Samaria” 91×
  • “Is samaria” 2×
  • “Returned to samaria” 2×

Plus 14 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H8111 across 105 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Samaria” 97×
  • “Is in samaria” 2×

Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 4 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H8111 across 108 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Samaria” 101×
  • “Is in samaria” 2×

Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


Senses in BDB

The 3 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.

  1. Samaria = "watch mountain"
  2. the region of northern Palestine associated with the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes of Israel which split from the…
  3. the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel located 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jerusalem and 6 miles (10…

Word origin

n.pr.loc. capital of N. Isr. from Omri’s time (belonging to clan שֶׁמֶר, StaZAW v (1885), 165–175; originally שַׁמְרוֹן or שַׁמְרַיִן; Assyrian Samerîna COT 1 K 16:24);—שׁ׳ 1 K 16:24 (name expl. as from שֶׁמֶר, orig. owner of site), v 28, 29, 32; 20:1, 10 +; שֹׁמְר֫וֹנָה 1 K 20:43; 2 K 6:19; 14:14; personified as woman Ez 16:46, 51, 53, 55; 23:4, 33; king of N. Isarel is מֶלֶךְ שׁ׳ 1 K 21:2; 2 K 1:3; מ׳ יִשׂ׳ אֲשֶׁר בְּשׁ׳ 1 K 21:18, cf. מָלַךְ עַל־יִשׂ׳ בְּשׁ׳ 22:52 + 9 times; thence name of territory, שְׂדֵה שׁ׳ Ob 19, עָרֵי שׁ׳ 1 K 13:32 (point of view of later editor), 2 K 17:24, 26; 23:19; הָרֵי שׁ׳ Am 3:9; Je 31:5,—cf. הַר־שׁ׳ Am 4:1; 6:1; 1 K 16:24; perhaps שׁ׳ alone Je 23:13; 1 K 18:2; 2 K 17:24, 28; 2 Ch 25:13; חֵיל שׁ׳ Ne 3:34.—𝔊 usually Σαμαρεια, but 1 K 16:24 Σεμερω, Σαεμερων, Σομορων; = mod. Sebastieh; vid. GASmG. 346 ff. Buhl G 207 f. CowleyEncy. Bib. s. v. WilsonHast. DB s. v..

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from שמר (shâmar) (H8104) — to keep.

Part of speech: Proper Name Location TWOT: 2414d


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

שמרון

  • , Gen. R. s. 36 some ed., v. שְׁמָדוֹן

שֹׁמְרוֹן

  • (b. h.) Samaria, city and district. Esth. R. to I, 2. Tanḥ. Vayesheb 2 כשגלו ישראל מש׳ … בש׳ וכ׳ when the Israelites were exiled from Samaria, Sennaherib sent his servants and settled them in S. to raise taxes for the kings. Num. R. s. 103 (ref. to Am. VI, 2) זה ציון וש׳ ‘these kingdoms’ refers to Zion and Samaria (Judah and Israel); a. fr. e.g. Amos 6:2

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 32 distinct written forms H8111 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
שֹׁמְרֽוֹן Noun, Proper Ezekiel 23:33 14
בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper Amos 3:12 11
שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper Amos 4:1 10
שֹׁמְר֑וֹן Noun, Proper Amos 6:1 8
שֹׁמְר֖וֹן Noun, Proper Ezekiel 16:53 8
בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 16:28 7
בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 16:32 7
שֹׁמְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper Amos 3:9 7
בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Kings 1:2 5
שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 20:1 3
שֹׁמְר֗וֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 22:38 3
שֹׁמְרֽוֹנָ/ה Noun, Proper 1 Kings 20:43 3
מִ/שֹּׁמְרֽוֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 20:17 2
שֹֽׁמְר֑וֹן Noun, Proper Hosea 10:5 2
שֹׁמְר֛וֹן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 16:24 2
בְ/שֹֽׁמְר֗וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 22:9 1
בְ/שֹׁמְר֛וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Kings 17:1 1
בְ/שֹׁמְר֜וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Kings 15:25 1
וְ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper Ezekiel 16:51 1
וְ/שֹֽׁמְרוֹן֙ Noun, Proper Ezekiel 16:55 1
וּ/מִ/שֹּֽׁמְרוֹן֙ Noun, Proper Jeremiah 41:5 1
וּ/מִ/שֹּׁמְרֽוֹן Noun, Proper Isaiah 10:10 1
לְ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 18:2 1
לְ/שֹׁמְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 28:9 1
לְ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן Noun, Proper Isaiah 10:11 1
לְ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 28:8 1
מִ/שֹּׁ֣מְר֔וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Kings 17:28 1
מִ/שֹּׁמְר֑וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Kings 3:6 1
מִ/שֹּׁמְר֖וֹן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 25:13 1
שֹֽׁמְרוֹן֙ Noun, Proper Ezekiel 16:46 1
שֹׁמְר֣וֹן Noun, Proper Ezekiel 23:4 1
שֹׁמְרוֹן֒ Noun, Proper 2 Kings 6:20 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8111, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 16 — not the complete family. 7 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Bible dictionary

Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Samaria). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.

Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897

A watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the "hill of Shomeron," a solitary mountain, a great "mamelon." It is an oblong hill, with steep but not inaccessible sides, and a long flat top. Omri, the king of Israel, purchased this hill from Shemer its owner for two talents of silver, and built on its broad summit the city to which he gave the name of "Shomeron", i.e., Samaria, as the new capital of his kingdom instead of Tirzah (1 Kings 16:24). As such it possessed many advantages. Here Omri resided during the last six years of his reign. As the result of an unsuccessful war with Syria, he appears to have been obliged to grant to the Syrians the right to "make streets in Samaria", i.e., probably permission to the Syrian merchants to carry on their trade in the Israelite capital. This would imply the existence of a considerable Syrian population. "It was the only great city of Palestine created by the sovereign. All the others had been already consecrated by patriarchal tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri alone. He, indeed, gave to the city which he had built the name of its former owner, but its especial connection with himself as its founder is proved by the designation which it seems Samaria bears in Assyrian inscriptions, Beth-khumri (the house or palace of Omri').", Stanley.

Samaria was frequently besieged. In the days of Ahab, Benhadad II. came up against it with thirty-two vassal kings, but was defeated with a great slaughter (1 Kings 20:1-21). A second time, next year, he assailed it; but was again utterly routed, and was compelled to surrender to Ahab (20:28-34), whose army, as compared with that of Benhadad, was no more than "two little flocks of kids."

In the days of Jehoram this Benhadad again laid siege to Samaria, during which the city was reduced to the direst extremities. But just when success seemed to be within their reach, they suddenly broke up the seige, alarmed by a mysterious noise of chariots and horses and a great army, and fled, leaving their camp with all its contents behind them. The famishing inhabitants of the city were soon relieved with the abundance of the spoil of the Syrian camp; and it came to pass, according to the word of Elisha, that "a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barely for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria" (2 Kings 7:1-20).

Shalmaneser invaded Israel in the days of Hoshea, and reduced it to vassalage. He laid siege to Samaria (B.C. 723), which held out for three years, and was at length captured by Sargon, who completed the conquest Shalmaneser had begun (2 Kings 18:9-12; 17:3), and removed vast numbers of the tribes into captivity. (See SARGON.)

This city, after passing through various vicissitudes, was given by the emperor Augustus to Herod the Great, who rebuilt it, and called it Sebaste (Gr. form of Augustus) in honour of the emperor. In the New Testament the only mention of it is in Acts 8:5-14, where it is recorded that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached there.

It is now represented by the hamlet of Sebustieh, containing about three hundred inhabitants. The ruins of the ancient town are all scattered over the hill, down the sides of which they have rolled. The shafts of about one hundred of what must have been grand Corinthian columns are still standing, and attract much attention, although nothing definite is known regarding them. (Comp. Micah 1:6.)

In the time of Christ, Western Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Samaria occupied the centre of Palestine (John 4:4). It is called in the Talmud the "land of the Cuthim," and is not regarded as a part of the Holy Land at all.

It may be noticed that the distance between Samaria and Jerusalem, the respective capitals of the two kingdoms, is only 35 miles in a direct line.

Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863

(watch mountain). This city is situated 30 miles north of Jerusalem and about six miles to the northwest of Shechem, in a wide basin-shaped valley, six miles in diameter, encircled with high hills, almost on the edge of the great plain which borders upon the Mediterranean. In the centre of this basin, which is on a lower level than the valley of Shechem, rises a less elevated hill, with steep yet accessible sides and a long fiat top. This hill was chosen by Omri as the site of the capital of the kingdom of Israel. He "bought the hill of Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of the owner of the hill, Samaria." (1 Kings 16:23,24) From the that of Omri's purchase, B.C. 925, Samaria retained its dignity as the capital of the ten tribes, and the name is given to the northern kingdom as well as to the city. Ahab built a temple to Baal there. (1 Kings 16:32,33) It was twice besieged by the Syrians, in B.C. 901, (1 Kings 20:1) and in B.C. 892, (2 Kings 6:24-7; 2 Kings 6:20) but on both occasions the siege was ineffectual. The possessor of Samaria was considered Deuteronomy facto king of Israel. (2 Kings 15:13,14) In B.C. 721 Samaria was taken, after a siege of three years, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, (2 Kings 18:9,10) and the kingdom of the ten tribes was put an end to. Some years afterward the district of which Samaria was the centre was repeopled by Esarhaddon. Alexander the Great took the city, killed a large portion of the inhabitants, and suffered the remainder to set it at Shechem. He replaced them by a colony of Syro-Macedonians who occupied the city until the time of John Hyrcanus, who took it after a year's siege, and did his best to demolish it entirely. (B.C. 109.) It was rebuilt and greatly embellished by Herod the Great. He called it Sebaste=Augusta, after the name of his patron, Augustus Caesar. The wall around it was 2 1/2 miles long, and in the centre of the city was a park 900 feet square containing a magnificent temple dedicated to Caesar. In the New Testament the city itself does not appear to be mentioned; but rather a portion of the district to which, even in older times it had extended its name. (Matthew 10:5; John 4:4,5) At this clay the city is represented by a small village retaining few vestiges of the past except its name, Sebustiyeh, an Arabic corruption of Sebaste. Some architectural remains it has, partly of Christian construction or adaptation, as the ruined church of St. John the Baptist, partly, perhaps, traces of Idumaean magnificence, St. Jerome, whose acquaintance with Palestine imparts a sort of probability to the tradition which prevailed so strongly in later days, asserts that Sebaste, which he invariably identifies with Samaria was the place in which St. John the Baptist was imprisoned and suffered death. He also makes it the burial-place of the prophets Elisha and Obadiah.

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869

watch-mountain

Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 97 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 101 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

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