Atlas  Shaphir and surrounding area Maps Created using Biblemapper 3.0 Additional data from OpenBible.info Occurrences Micah 1:11 Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won't come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.Encyclopedia SHAPHIRsha'-fer (shaphir, "glittering"; kalos; the King James Version Saphir): One of a group of towns mentioned in Micah 1:10-15. From the association with Gath, Achzib (of Judah) 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 (Joshua 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). SAPH'IR, probably now es Sawafir, 7 ms. from the Mediterranean coast, in Palestine, 31 ms., a little s. of w., from Jerusalem, 9 1/2 ms. n.e. from Ascalon. Mich. 1:11 is the only reference. Strong's Hebrew H8208: Shaphir"beauty," a place perhaps in Philistia |
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