SHEPHATIAH shef ə ti’ ə (שְׁפַטְיָ֥ה, Jehovah has judged). 1. Fifth son of David while he dwelt in Hebron. His mother was Abital (2 Sam 3:4; 1 Chron 3:3). When David became king he made Hebron his capital for seven years before moving to Jerusalem.

2. A Benjaminite, the father of Meshullam and son of Reuel. Meshullam, a head of his father’s house, was one of the first to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity (1 Chron 9:8).

3. A Benjaminite from Haruph, who joined David’s band while the latter dwelt at Ziklag to escape Saul’s attempt to take him (12:5).

4. The son of Maacah, a prince over Simeonites while David was king (27:16). He belonged to one of the divisions responsible for the affairs of the kingdom, serving a month at a time (27:1).

5. A son of Jehoshaphat and brother of Jehoram whom Jehoshaphat made his successor as king of Judah (2 Chron 21:2). Jehoshaphat accompanied this move with lavish gifts to Jehoram’s brother, but when the new king was established he had all of his brothers put to death (21:3, 4).

6. The father of a family, 372 of whom returned to Jerusalem from Babylon in the return under Joshua and Zerubbabel in 538 b.c. (Ezra 2:2-4). Eighty-one more members of this family with their head returned to Jerusalem from captivity under Ezra in 457 b.c. (8:8; 1 Esd 8:34). 1 Esdras 5:9 places the number of the first return at 472 and the second number at 71.

7. Solomon’s servant whose descendants were among the 392 returning to Jerusalem under Joshua and Zerubbabel in 538 b.c. (Ezra 2:57, 58; Neh 7:59).

8. A descendant of Perez and son of Mahalalel. Shephatiah’s descendant, Athaiah, a Judahite, dwelt in Jerusalem at the time of Nehemiah (Neh 11:4).

9. The son of Mattan and a contemporary of Jeremiah, who witnessed Jeremiah’s warning concerning the Babylonian Captivity. The verdict of the princes was that Jeremiah was worthy of death (Jer 38:1-4).