Šĕmûʿâ names a report or message heard, whose truth and effect must be established by its context. First Kings 10:7 describes the queen of Sheba finding Solomon's wisdom greater than the report she had received.
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Full entry for שְׁמוּעָה (H8052) · Open the biblical lexicon
Šĕmûʿâ names a report or message heard, whose truth and effect must be established by its context. First Kings 10:7 describes the queen of Sheba finding Solomon's wisdom greater than the report she had received.
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include news (3), a message (2), a rumor (2), report (2), rumor (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Samuel 2:24. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (6), Ezekiel (4), Isaiah (4), 1 Kings (2).
Šĕmûʿâ names a report or message heard, whose truth and effect must be established by its context. First Kings 10:7 describes the queen of Sheba finding Solomon's wisdom greater than the report she had received. Second Samuel 13:30 records a report that all the king's sons have been killed, which the following account corrects: Amnon alone is dead. The noun therefore identifies received information without certifying every account as accurate.
Psalm 112:7 describes a heart trusting the Lord rather than fearing bad news, while Isaiah 53:1 asks who has believed the message concerning the servant. Those passages direct attention to trust and reception in particular settings. They do not turn every rumor into revelation or condemn the distress of someone hearing painful information. Teachers can distinguish a message's content, reliability and reception before relating Isaiah's words to Romans 10, where Paul explicitly cites the question in his account of hearing and faith.
An understated royal report, an exaggerated death report, bad news and the servant message show varied truth and reception. What is heard must be assessed from the surrounding account rather than certified by the noun report itself.
But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told to me. Your wisdom and prosperity have far exceeded the report I heard.
The queen's direct observation exceeds the earlier account of Solomon. Her statement assesses the report's adequacy rather than defining all reports as inherently trustworthy.
While they were on the way, a report reached David: “Absalom has struck down all the sons of the king; not one of them is left!”
David receives an exaggerated claim that all his sons are dead. The correction and arriving survivors require the reader to distinguish received rumor from established fact.
He does not fear bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Steadfast trust is contrasted with fear of bad news within a portrait of justice and generosity. The psalm does not deny that painful reports can arrive.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The question about believing the message introduces the account of the servant's rejection and suffering. The subject matter comes from that account, not from report as a generic noun.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Information transmitted by ear; shifting from neutral report to unreliable rumor depending on verification and source trustworthiness
Information transmitted by ear; shifting from neutral report to unreliable rumor depending on verification and source trustworthiness
something heard, i.e. an announcement BDB: report Usage: bruit, doctrine, fame, mentioned, news, report, rumor, tidings.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 27 lexical occurrence verses.
שְׁמוּעָה is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Second Samuel 13 gives a report enough force to provoke David's immediate grief, yet the report overstates the death toll. Jonadab corrects it, and the surviving sons arrive while still grieving Amnon's death. The correction does not make the loss imaginary; it makes the account more accurate. That distinction is valuable when teaching responsible speech about painful events.
The queen of Sheba finds an earlier report insufficient to describe what she sees. Psalm 112 portrays trust amid the possibility of bad news rather than a world where no bad report occurs. Isaiah's question concerns a particular servant message, and Romans 10 explicitly uses it within a Christian account of hearing and faith. These contexts keep factual accuracy, emotional response and reception of God's message related but distinct. The noun alone cannot settle all three questions for any information that reaches a listener.
2Sam.13.30
Report or heard message names received information, not its verified status. The noun's uses include rumor, observed royal fame and Isaiah's servant message; each passage supplies its own content, reliability and reception rather than one universal judgment.
Romans 10:16 quotes Isaiah's question about belief in the message before linking faith and hearing to the word of Christ. The citation supports a particular Christian connection to Isaiah. It does not make every occurrence of šĕmûʿâ divine revelation or every ordinary rumor an object of saving faith.