SHAPHAN coney), occurs in Lev. xi:5; Deut. xiv:7; Ps. civ. 18; l'rov. xxx :26).
Commentators in general now conclude, on the most satisfactory grounds, that those versions which give coney for the Hebrew shaw-fawn' are incorrect ; but several maintain that the species to N% hich show-fawn' belongs ruminates, which may be an error. The shaw-fawn' is, as Bruce justly in dicated, the same as the Ashkoko, the Ganam, not Daman, Israel, the Wabber of the Arabs, and in scientific zoology is one of the small genus Hyrax. In the upper jaw it has no incisors, but two rather pointed tusks directed downwards, with an open space between them; in the lower are four short, separated, roundish incisors, pointing obliquely forward; there are six molars on each side, above and below, the upper round on the surface, some what resembling the human back teeth, and the lower more narrow, but neither composed of al ternate laminw of bony and enamel substance as in ruminants ; nor is the jawbone articulated so as to admit freely of a similar action; finally, the internal structure as well as the whole osteology represents that of a rhinoceros in miniature, and has no appearance of the complicated fourfold stomachs of ruminants ; therefore the hyrax is neither a rodent like hares and rabbits, nor a ruminant,but is anomalous, and most nearly allied to the great pachyderms of systematic zoology. Externally, the hyrax is somewhat of the size, form and brownish color of a rabbit, and, though is short, round ears, is sufficiently like for observers to mistake the one for the other. Navigators and colonists often carry the local names of their native land to other countries, and bestow them upon new objects with little pro priety; this seems to have been done in the in stance before us; there being reason to believe that the Phoenicians, on visiting the western shores of the European side of the Mediterranean, found the country, as other authorities likewise assert, in fested with rabbits or conies, and that without at tending to the difference they bestowed upon them the Hebrew or Phoenician name of shaw-fawn', applying it also to the country itself by forming sphan, into sphanih, which they intended should mean 'the land of conies ;' and from this misnomer 'Hispania' and our 'Spain' are presumed to be derived.
The hyrax is of clumsier structure than the rabbit, without tail, having long bristly hairs scattered through the general fur ; the feet are naked below, and all the nails are flat and rounded, save those on each inner toe of the hind feet, which are long and awl-shaped; therefore the species cannot dig, and is by nature intended to reside, not, like rabbits, in burrows, but in the clefts of rocks. This character is correctly ap plied to the shaw-fawn' by David. C. H. S.
2. (Heb. as above.) The scribe or secretary of King Josiah (2 Kings xxii :3, 12; Jer. xxxvi :19 ; comp. Ezek. viii :II), B. C. about 628. Contempo rary with him was a state officer named Ahikam, constantly mentioned as 'the son of Shaphan' (2 Kings xxii :12 ; xxv :22; Jer. xxvi :24 ; xxxix :14) ; hut this Shaphan, the father of Ahikam, says Kitto, can hardly he the same with Shaphan the scribe, although one may be apt to confound them. On the other hand it is held that there seems to be no sufficient reason for supposing that Shaphan, the father of Ahikam, and Shaphan the scribe, were different persons.
The history of Shaphan brings out some points with regard to the office of scribe which he held. He appears on an equality with the governor of the city and the royal recorder, with whom he was sent by the king to Hilkiah to take an account of the money which had been collected by the Le vites for the repair of the temple and to pay the workmen (2 Kings xxii :3; 2 Chron. xxxiv :8; comp. 2 Kings xii:lo), B. C. about 639. Ewald calls him minister of finance (Gcsch. in:697). It was on this occasion that Hilkiah communicated his discovery of a copy of the law, which he had probably found while making preparations for the repair of the temple. Shaphan was intrusted to deliver it to the king, who was so deeply moved upon hearing it read that he sent Shaphan, with the high priest and others, to consult Huldah the prophetess. Shaphan was then apparently an old man, for his son Ahikam must have been in a po sition of importance, and his grandson Gedaliah was already born. Be this as it may, Shaphan disappears from the scene, and probably died be fore the fifth year of Jehoiakim, eighteen years later, when we find Elishama was scribe (Jer. xxxvi :12), (Smith Bib. Dict., under that word).