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SHAPHAN (‘coney’ or ‘rock-badger’; an old totem clan-name—so W. R. Smith).—1. ‘The scribe’ (secretary of state) of Josiah in 621 b.c., ‘son of Azaliah,’ who laid before the king the law-book discovered by Hilkiah (wh. see) in the Temple (2Ki_22:3-11 = 2Ch_34:8-18). Shaphan appears to have been the chief lay leader in the execution of Josiah’s reforms. His family for two following generations played a worthy part as servants of Jehovah, and friends of the prophet Jeremiah: the Ahikam of 2Ki_22:12-14 (= 2Ch_34:20-22) and Jer_26:24, the Gemariah of Jer_36:12; Jer_36:25, and Elasah (Jer_29:3) were Shaphan’s sons; the Micaiah of Jer_36:11-12, and Gedaliah (wh. see), whom the Chaldæans made governor of Judæa after the Captivity of 586 b.c., his grandsons. 2. The ‘Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan,’ denounced in Eze_8:11 as ringleader in idolatry, was possibly, but not certainly, a son of the same Shaphan.
G. G. Findlay.