Shemaiah

The holy Prophet Shemaiah (Semeias; the name means "God hears") lived under King Solomon and his son Rehoboam. At that time the kingdom of Israel in the north, made up of ten loosely united tribes, had been divided from the southern kingdom of Judah, which held two tribes.

The prophet commanded Rehoboam, in God's name, not to make war against the ten tribes of Israel, who had separated themselves from the descendants of David (3 Kings 12:22; 2 Chronicles 11:2). The second Book of Chronicles (chapter 12) tells that when Pharaoh Shishak came against Jerusalem he announced to Rehoboam and the princes that God had abandoned them, and that they humbled themselves.

The Church commemorates him on 9 January, in the Menaion calendar; the Russian calendar lists him on 22 January, which is the same day in the new civil style.