Shaphir standard
and Mareshah, it would seem that the places mentioned were in Southwestern Palestine.
Where is Shaphir in the Bible?
Shaphir was a town in southwestern Palestine, likely located in the coastal plain region southeast of Ashdod in what is now Israel. The name probably survives in the modern villages called es-Suafir in that area. Shaphir appears in the Book of Micah, where the prophet condemns the town in his oracle of judgment, calling its inhabitants to "pass on in nakedness and shame" as part of God's coming judgment against Judah and Israel. The mention of Shaphir alongside other towns like Mareshah places it within the prophetic tradition of accountability for Judean cities during the period of divine warning before exile.
In Scripture1 biblical book; 1 with study content
- Micah
Shaphir
ISBE 1915 (Public Domain)and Mareshah, it would seem that the places mentioned were in Southwestern Palestine. According to Eusebius, in Onomasticon, there was a Sapheir, "in the hill country" (from a confusion with Shamir (Jos 15:48), where Septuagint A has Sapheir) between Eleutheropolis and Ascalon. The name probably survives in that of three villages called es-Suafir, in the plain, some 3 1/2 miles Southeast of Ashdod (PEF, II, 413, Sh XV). Cheyne (EB, col. 4282) suggests the white "glittering" hill Tell ec-Cafi, at the entrance to the Wady ec-Sunt, which was known to the Crusaders as Blanchegarde, but this site seems a more probable one for GATH (which see).
E. W. G. Masterman
sha-ra'-i, sha'-ri (sharay): One of the sons of Bani who had married foreign wives (Ezr 10:40).
sha-ra'-im.
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