Shem Shem Shem (; "Shem";) was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arphaxad. Islamic literature describes Shem as one of the believing sons of Noah. Some sources even identify Shem as a prophet in his own right and that he was the next prophet after his father. Shem is mentioned several times in Genesis 5-11 as well as 1 Chronicles 1:4. Genesis
Tower of Babel Tower of Babel account, in , it is said that everyone on Earth spoke the same language, but this is inconsistent with the Biblical description of the post-Noahic world described in , where it is said that the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth gave rise to different nations, each with their own language. Some explain this discrepancy by saying that the order of the narrative is not the same as the order of events. There have also been a number of traditions around the world that describe a divine confusion of the one original language into several, albeit without