In the Genesis Flood narrative, Shem is the son of Noah traditionally linked to the ancestors of the Israelites. Genesis 10 traces a line from Shem through Arpachshad and later generations to peoples associated with the Near East.
The term “Semite” was later formed from Shem’s name, although modern scholarship uses Semitic primarily as a linguistic classification covering languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian. The biblical genealogy itself is not a modern language-family chart.
Shem is one of Noah’s three sons, alongside Ham and Japheth. Genesis also presents Shem as an ancestor in the line leading to Abraham, making him especially important within the biblical narrative of Israel’s origins.