SHAPHAT (shā'făt, Heb. shāphāt, he has judged)

The son of Hori, chosen from the tribe of Simeon to spy out the land of Canaan (Num.13.5).The father of Elisha the prophet (1Kgs.19.16, 1Kgs.19.19; 2Kgs.3.11; 2Kgs.6.31).A Gadite chief in Bashan (1Chr.5.12).A son of Adlai, one of David’s herdsmen (1Chr.27.29).The last-named son of Shemaiah, a descendant of the royal line of David (1Chr.3.22). Shemaiah’s is said here to have had six sons, but the fact that only five are actually named shows that one name has probably been lost in the process of the transmission of the text. Or possibly Shemaiah is to be understood as the sixth brother, rather than the father of the five listed.

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SHAPHAT shāf’ ăt (שָׁפָ֔ט; LXX Σαφάτ; judged). 1. The father of the prophet Elisha (1 Kings 19:16, 19, 20; 2 Kings 3:11; 6:31). He was from the town of Abelmeholah E of the Jordan River, prob. Tell el-Maqlub on the Wadi el-Yabis. Shaphat lived to see his son named to assume the mantle of Elijah.

2. A son of Hori and of the tribe of Simeon (Num 13:5). He represented his tribe as one of the twelve spies sent out by Moses from the wilderness of Paran to survey the nature of Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.

3. The youngest of the six sons of Shemaiah although only five are named in 1 Chronicles 3:22. He was a grandson of Zerubbabel and of the royal line of the house of David.

4. A son of Adlai. He was one of King David’s herdsmen of the flocks in the valleys (1 Chron 27:29).

5. One of the sons of Gad who lived in the land of Bashan (1 Chron 5:12).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(shaphat):iah, one of the 70 men whom Ezekiel saw, in his vision of the Temple, sacrificing to idols (Eze 8:11).

(1) The Simeonite spy (Nu 13:5, Saphat).

(2) The father of the prophet Elisha (1Ki 19:16; 2Ki 3:11, Septuagint Saphath).

(3) A name in the royal genealogy of Judah (1Ch 3:22).

(4) A Gadite (1Ch 5:12).

(5) One of David’s herdsmen (1Ch 27:29).