Shaphan

[reading in foreign language] So Baruch, Yermiyahu scribe, comes to the Beit Hamikdash, and he reads this book, this Megillat Sefer, in God's house.

[reading in foreign language] In the upper courtyard of the Beit Hamikdash, he's reading it from the office of Gemaryahu ben Shaphan.

[reading in foreign language] Opposite the new gate of the Beit Hamikdash in the upper courtyard in the ears of all the people.

Why did they choose the office of Gemaryahu ben Shaphan to read? We're going to see that the Shaphan family has very close ties with Yermiyahu from way back.

Shaphan was the scribe during the time of King Yoshiyahu.

Now we're under the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Yoshiyahu, and now this is the office of Shaphan's son, Gemaryahu ben Shaphan.

In the next passage, we're gonna find the next generation, Michaya ben Gemaryahu ben Shaphan, who's gonna be a key character in the story that follows.

What's also interesting, in fact rather amazing, that in the excavations of Ir David from the seventies and eighties, they found a lot of bullae.

That room was located at the entrance of the new gate of the temple.

Gemariah was the son of Shaphan the secretary.

A man named Micaiah heard all the messages from the Lord that Baruch read from the scroll.

Micaiah was the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan.

When Micaiah heard the messages from the scroll, he went down to the secretary's room in the king's palace.

All the officials were sitting there in the king's palace.

These are the names of the officials: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials were there, too.

Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll.

But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.

He appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahicham, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had left.

Now when all the captains of the forces and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kereah, Saraiah son of Tanhemeth the Netaphathite, and Jazaniah son of the Makathite.

Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials.

Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and their men.

Gedaliah son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan took an oath to reassure them and their men.

"Do not be afraid to serve the Babylonians," he said.

"Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.

I myself will stay in Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians who come to us.

But you are to harvest the wine, summer fruit, and olive oil, and put them in your storage jars, and live in the towns you have taken over." When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor over them.

They all came back to the land of Judah to Gedaliah at Mizpah from all the countries where they had been scattered, and they harvested an abundance of wine and summer fruit.

Johanan son of Karea and all the army officers still in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah and said to him, Don't you know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.

This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.

He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.

It said: "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 'Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.

Jehoiachin, this included Ezekiel, okay? And 586 BC, this was the final one, the climax of the exile.

And so 22 to 23, then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan as governor over the people he had left in Judah.

When all the army commanders and their men learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they went to see him at Mizpah.

These included Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, Yohanan, son of Kariah, Sariah, son of Tanhumeth, The Netophatite, my goodness, these are very difficult names.

And they did not go back to Judah until they found out that Gedaliah becomes the governor.

Because King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah to govern the people who were left behind in Judah.

Judah, right? And who is this Gedaliah? Well, he was the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan.

Now, that's very important to know because Ahikam and Shaphan were connected to Josiah.

I, I, I've never heard most guides mention this, although I always mention it when I take a tour to David's City, which is there's a person in the Bible who's mentioned in the Books of, uh, Kings and Chronicles.

His name is Gemariah, the son of Shaphan.

He was the secretary estate for one of the last kings of Judah, and- They found in one of the archaeological sites a stamp bearing his name, and, uh, it would have been something that he personally would have affixed, 'cause only he would have the authority to affix such a stamp with his name on a scroll that would be rolled up and, you know, sealed with strings, and each of those strings would have a ceramic s- uh, stamp with his name on it.

And if any of those strings or stamps were severed, it meant that somebody had, [chuckles] you know, read your mail.

So, uh, so we found a stamp with the name of somebody from the Bible.

But what shocks people is when I tell them that we also have the fossilized fingerprint of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, a character mentioned in the Bible.

Because when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, his fingerprint was fossilized by the heats of the fire, or the fires, you know, that destroyed, uh, Jerusalem at that time.

So we not only have a seal with the name of a minor figure from the Bible, which to me is even more impressive, you know, 'cause you have some people that would think, "Well, yeah, sure, David and Solomon existed," but how do we know all these minor names, uh, existed too, like their staff and their helpers, you know, and their commanders in the army? So here we have a guy who's mentioned as, like, a, as a supporting cast member, and his name has been, uh, preserved.

At that time, Baruch went into the temple of the Lord.

He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, who had been the royal secretary.

That room was in the upper court near the entrance of the new gate.

There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said.

Micaiah, who was a son of Jeremiah, and the grandson of chaffan heard baruch read from the scroll everything the lord had said he went down to the chamber of the royal secretary in the king's palace and found all the court officials in session there elishamah the royal secretary delaiah son of shemaiah Elnathan, son of Akbor, Gamariah, son of Shaphan, Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and all the other officials were seated there.

Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.

All the officials sent Jehudai, who was a son of Nethaniah, the son of Shalamiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch.