SAMEKH

[ם].

The fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also later used outside the Hebrew Scriptures as a number to denote sixty.

Saʹmekh corresponds generally to the sound of English “s.” This letter represents the sound that the Ephraimites used when endeavoring to pronounce the word “shibboleth,” which begins with the letter shin (ש) rather than with saʹmekh. (Judg. 12:6; see also SIN or SHIN.) In the Hebrew, saʹmekh is the initial letter in each of the eight verses of Psalm 119:113-120.