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Person

Shimshai

Man living at the time of Exile and Return

Shimshai was a scribe who, along with Rehum the commander, wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

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Shimshai is mentioned in Ezr.4.8, 9, 17, and 23 as a scribe who, together with Rehum the commander, opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia. Shimshai and Rehum wrote a letter to the king, accusing the Jews of rebuilding the city and its walls, and claiming that this would lead to rebellion against the Persian Empire. In response to their letter, Artaxerxes ordered the work on the city to cease until further notice. Shimshai and Rehum, along with their associates, then went to Jerusalem and forcibly stopped the Jews from rebuilding the city. This opposition temporarily halted the reconstruction efforts until the reign of King Darius, who later allowed the Jews to resume their work on the temple and the city.

Bible dictionary

Shimshai Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

The shining one, or sunny, the secretary of Rehum the chancellor, who took part in opposing the rebuilding of the temple after the Captivity (Ezra 4:8, 9, 17-23).

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Shimshai, Or Shimshai Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

(sunny), the scribe or secretary of Kehum, who was a kind of satrap of the conquered province of Judea and of the colony of Samaria, supported by the Persian court. (Ezra 4:8,13,17,23) He was apparently an Aramaean, for the letter which he wrote to Artaxerxes was in Syriac. (Ezra 4:7) (B.C. 529.)

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Shimshai Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

my son

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Shimshai Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

SHIM'SHAI (sunny), the scribe or secretary of Rehum the chancellor. He joined in opposing the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel. Ezr 4:8-9, 2 Sam 21:17, Heb 12:23.

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Shimshai Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

SHIM'SHAI (sunny), the scribe or secretary of Rehum the chancellor. He joined in opposing the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel. Ezr 4:8-9, 2 Sam 21:17, Heb 12:23.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Shimshai appears

4 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H8124

Ezra4

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.