Shephatiah שְׁפַטְיָהוּ

Shephatiah is mentioned in Ezr.2.4, 8:8, and Neh.7.9 as an ancestor of some of the exiles who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. In Ezr.2.4 and Neh.7.9, the descendants of Shephatiah are listed among the people who came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. The number of Shephatiah's descendants is given as 372 in both passages. In Ezr.8.8, Shephatiah's descendants are mentioned again among those who returned with Ezra to Jerusalem, with a slightly different count of 300 males. These references highlight the presence of Shephatiah's family line among the returnees from the Babylonian exile and their contribution to the repopulation of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.