Hebrew word · H7866

שִׁיאוֹן

veshi'on

Shion

A proper name found only here. Its meaning is uncertain. Lexicons offer guesses based on similar-sounding roots, but none is secure.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Shion = "ruin"

a town of Issachar located near Mount Tabor

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 19:19

Range of meaning

A proper name found only here. Its meaning is uncertain. Lexicons offer guesses based on similar-sounding roots, but none is secure.

Against the English

Shion (BSB, KJV, WEB), Shihon (YLT, which tries to show the Hebrew letters more closely). The difference is spelling convention, not meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

No sure match exists outside the Bible. Older scholars suggested sites such as ʿAyun esh-Shaʿin, but these rest mostly on similar-sounding modern Arabic names and are not secure.

Where it appears

Joshua · 1

  1. Joshua 19:19 וְשִׁיאֹ֖ן and Shion

    Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,

    Here: The next town in the list, again joined by "and." It appears only here in the Bible. No one knows for sure what the name means or where the town stood.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.