Tahpanhes, Tahapanes

TAHPANHES, TAHAPANES (tăp'a-nēz, tă-hăp'a-nēz, Heb. tahpanhēs). A fortress city at the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, on the eastern border of Egypt, on an old caravan road to Palestine and beyond. Early it became a Greek settlement, the Greeks naming it Daphnae, perpetuated in the modern Tell Defenneh. Jeremiah saw it as powerful enough to break “the crown of Judah.” Jews fled here after the fall of Jerusalem (Jer.2.16; Jer.43.1-Jer.43.7). Here Jeremiah prophesied its destruction (Jer.43.8-Jer.43.11; Jer.44.1; Jer.46.14); Ezekiel also (Jer.30.18). During their century it was a city of trade and the manufacture of pottery and jewelry. Excavations have uncovered ruins of this period.