SHOES. To put off the shoes from one’s feet, was an act of reverence to the Divine majesty of God, Exod. iii, 5. It was likewise a sign of mourning and humiliation. David went up the ascent of Mount Olivet barefoot, 2 Sam. xv, 30; Isa. xx, 2, 4; Ezek. xxiv, 17. See [Sandal].
SHOULDER. To give or lend the shoulder for the bearing of a burden, signifies to submit to servitude. “Issachar bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute,” Gen. xlix, 15. And Isaiah, x, 27, comforting Israel with the promise of deliverance from Assyria, says, “His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder.” The Scripture calls that a rebellious shoulder, a withdrawing shoulder, which will not submit to the yoke; and to bear it together with joint consent, is termed “serving with one shoulder.” To bear any thing upon the shoulder, is to sustain it, and this is applied to government and authority. Thus Messiah was to bear the government upon his shoulder: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,” &c, Isa. ix, 6; and God promises Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, to give him the key of the house of David, and to lay it upon his shoulder; “so he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open;” that is, the sole authority shall rest upon him.
SHUSHAN, or SUSA, the ancient capital of Persia, seated on the river Ulai, the modern Abzal. After the union of the kingdoms of Media and Persia by Cyrus, Susa was made the winter residence of the kings of Persia, from its southern position, and the shelter afforded by a range of mountains on the north and east, which rendered the heat insupportable in the summer season; while Ecbatana, in Media, from its greater elevation, and more northern situation, was preferred at this season, as being more cool and agreeable. Here the transactions occurred related in the book of Esther. Here also Daniel had the vision of the ram with two horns, and the goat with one horn, &c, in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign. Susa was situated in the ancient province of Elam, or Elymais, called also Susiana, and now forming a part of Kuzestan. It has for several hundred years, like Babylon, been reduced to a heap of undistinguished ruins. Mr. Kinneir says, “About seven or eight miles to the west of Dezphoul, commence the ruins of Shus, stretching not less, perhaps, than twelve miles, from one extremity to the other. They extend as far as the eastern bank of the Kerah; occupying an immense space between that river and the Abzal; and, like the ruins of Ctesiphon, Babylon, and Kufa, consist of hillocks of earth and rubbish, covered with broken pieces of brick and coloured tile. The largest and most remarkable of these mounds stand at the distance of about two miles from the Kerah. The first is, at the lowest computation, a mile in circumference, and nearly a hundred feet in height; and the other, although not quite so high, is double the circuit of the former. These mounds bear some resemblance to the pyramids of Babylon; with this difference, that instead of being entirely made of brick, they are formed of clay and pieces of tile, with irregular layers of brick and mortar, five or six feet in thickness, to serve, it should seem, as a kind of prop to the mass. Large blocks of marble, covered with hieroglyphics, are not unfrequently here discovered by the Arabs when digging in search of hidden treasure; and at the foot of the most elevated of the pyramids stands the tomb of Daniel, a small and apparently a modern building, erected on the spot where the relics of that prophet are believed to rest. The site of the city of Shus is now a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, hyænas, and other beasts of prey. The dread of these furious animals compelled Mr. Monteith and myself to take shelter for the night within the walls that encompass Daniel’s tomb.” Of this tomb Sir John Malcom observes, that “it is a small building, but sufficient to shelter some dervishes who watch the remains of the prophet, and are supported by the alms of pious pilgrims who visit the holy sepulchre. These dervishes are now the only inhabitants of Susa; and every species of wild beast roams at large over that spot on which some of the proudest palaces ever raised by human art once stood.” He also observes, respecting the authenticity of this tomb, that “although the building at the tomb of Daniel be comparatively modern, nothing could have led to its being built where it is, but a belief that this was the real site of the prophet’s sepulchre.”
SIDON, or ZIDON, a celebrated city and port of Phenicia, and one of the most ancient cities in the world; as it is supposed to have been founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan, which will carry it up to above two thousand years before Christ. But if it was founded by Sidon, his descendants were driven out by a body of Phenician colonists, or Cushim from the east; who are supposed either to have given it its name, or to have retained the old one in compliment to their god Siton, or Dagon. Its inhabitants appear to have early acquired a preëminence in arts, manufactures, and commerce; and from their superior skill in hewing timber, by which must be understood their cutting it out and preparing it for building, as well as the mere act of felling it, Sidonian workmen were hired by Solomon to prepare the wood for the building of his temple. The Sidonians are said to have been the first manufacturers of glass; and Homer often speaks of them as excelling in many useful and ingenious arts, giving them the title of Πολυδαιδάλοι. Add to this, they were, if not the first shipwrights and navigators, the first who ventured beyond their own coasts, and in those early ages engrossed the greatest part of the then commerce of the world. The natural result of these exclusive advantages to the inhabitants of Sidon was, a high degree of wealth and prosperity; and content with the riches which their trade and manufactures brought them, they lived in ease and luxury, trusting the defence of their city and property, like the Tyrians after them, to hired troops; so that to live in ease and security, is said in Scripture to be after the manner of the Sidonians. In all these respects, however, Sidon was totally eclipsed by her neighbour and rival Tyre; whose more enterprising inhabitants pushed their commercial dealings to the extremities of the known world, raised their city to a rank in power and opulence unknown before, and converted it into a luxurious metropolis, and the emporium of the produce of all nations. After the subversion of the Grecian empire by the Romans, Sidon fell into the hands of the latter; who, to put an end to the frequent revolt of the inhabitants, deprived it of its freedom. It then fell successively under the power of the Saracens, the Seljukian Turks, and the sultans of Egypt; who, in 1289, that they might never more afford shelter to the Christians, destroyed both it and Tyre. But it again somewhat revived, and has ever since been in the possession of the Ottoman Turks.
SIGN. This word is used in the sense of token and pledge; as, when the Lord gave to Noah the rainbow, as a sign of his covenant, Gen. ix, 12, 13; and when he appointed to Abraham the use of circumcision, as the seal of the covenant he had made with him and his posterity, Gen. xvii, 11. Sign is also put for a miracle: “Thou shalt do these signs and wonders in the midst of Egypt,” Exodus iv, 7–9, &c. A sign or token is often put for the proof or evidence of a thing: For example, “This shall be a token or sign unto thee, that I have sent thee,” Exod. iii, 12. “Shew me a sign, that thou talkest with me,” Judges vi, 17, that is a proof. “What shall be the sign,” or evidence, “that the Lord will heal me?” 2 Kings xx, 8. This acceptation agrees with the first above mentioned; as also what is said in Gen. iv, 15, “And the Lord set a mark or sign upon Cain;” he gave him a pledge that his life should not be taken away. The signs of heaven, and the signs of the magicians, are the phenomena of the heavens, and the impostures of magicians, which they made use of for the purposes of deception: “The Lord frustrateth the tokens or signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad,” Isaiah xliv, 25. “Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Heathen are dismayed at them,” Jer. x, 2. To be a sign was farther to be a type, or prediction, of what should happen. Thus the Prophet Isaiah, viii, 18, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel.” See also Ezek. iv, 3.
SILAS, or Sylvanus, was, according to St. Luke, Acts xv, 22, one of the “chief men among the brethren,” which makes it probable, that he was of the number of the seventy disciples. When a dispute was raised at Antioch about the observation of the legal ceremonies, they chose Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas, to go to Jerusalem, to advise with the Apostles concerning this question. He is thought to be the same Silas who is mentioned by the name of Sylvanus, in the title of the two epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. St. Peter sent his first epistle by him from Rome, wherein he styles him “a faithful brother.” Silas joined himself to St. Paul; and after Saul and Barnabas had parted, on account of John Mark, Acts xv, 37–41, Silas followed St. Paul, and went with him to visit the churches of Syria and Cilicia.
SILENCE. This word not only signifies to refrain from speaking; but also in the style of the Hebrews, it is taken for, “to be quiet, to remain immovable.” As for example: “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,” in Hebrew, be silent. “And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed,” Joshua x, 12, 13, or were silent, at the commandment of Joshua.
SILOAH, the same as Siloam, Neh. iii, 15; Luke xiii, 4; a fountain under the walls of Jerusalem, toward the east, between the city and the brook Kidron, perhaps the same with Enrogel. Near this was a tower, Luke xiii, 4.
שריקות SILK, משי. As the word which is rendered “silk” in our version more probably meant cotton, or rather muslin, it is doubtful whether silk is mentioned expressly in the Scripture, unless, perhaps, in Isaiah xix, 9, where we find the Hebrew word שריקות, from שרק, yellowish, tawny; which is generally the natural colour of raw silk; hence the Latin sericum: or it may be from the Seres, a nation whence the Greeks and Romans first obtained the article silk. Calmet remarks that the ancient Greeks and Romans had but little knowledge of the nature of silk. The Seres communicated their silk to the Persians, from whom it passed to the Greeks, and from them to the Romans. But the Persians and orientals for a long time kept the secret of manufacturing it among themselves. Silk was first brought into Greece after Alexander’s conquest of Persia, and came into Italy during the flourishing times of the Roman empire; but was long so dear in all these parts as to be worth its weight in gold. At length the emperor Justinian, who died in the year 365, by means of two monks, whom he sent into India for that purpose, procured great quantities of silk worms’ eggs to be brought to Constantinople, and from these have sprung all the silk worms and all the silk trade that have been since in Europe, See [Flax].
SILVER, כסף, Gen. xx, 16; ἀργύριον, 1 Pet. i, 18; Acts iii, 4; xx, 33; a well known metal, of a white shining colour; next in value to gold. It does not appear to have been in use before the deluge; at least Moses says nothing of it: he speaks only of the metals brass and iron, Gen. iv, 22. But in Abraham’s time it was become common, and traffic was carried on with it, Gen. xxiii, 2, 15. Yet it was not then coined, but was only in bars or ingots; and in commerce was always weighed.