MUPPIM May0/2; .11.1ophim) is men ....
tioned in Gen. xlvi. as as the eighth of the ten sons of the patriarch Benjamin. This name does not occur in the other passages where Jacob's family are enumerated (comp. Num. xxvi. 38-41 ; I Chron.
vii. 6-12 ; viii. 1-5). But commentators, not with out reason, have held the name to be either a cor ruption of the SHUPHAM of Num. xxvi. 39, son of Benjamin, and head of a mishpachah, or clan, of the tribe of Jacob's youngest son (which name occurs in the reduplicate form of SHEPHUPHAN in I Chron.
viii. 5), or a second name borne by the same person. We prefer the latter supposition, that Shupham or Shephuphan was also called Muppim ; for it was not unusual for the same individual to bear more than one name, to designate some historical or local circumstance in the man's life (thus, in the present instance, the Targum of Jonathan makes the subject of our article bear the name of Muppim because ' he was sold into Muph,' whatever that may mean). Besides, there seems no evidence of corruption of text. The Samaritan reading, the Septuagint [Alex. varies but slightly, MapOeiv], the two Targums, the Syriac and the Vulgate, all agree in giving, more or less accurately, the He brew name This name is not likely to have been mistaken fOr the Shuphan (or, as it ought to have been rendered, Shephupham, for the original is 12MV) of Num. xxvi. 39, or for the Shephuphan (191p) of 1 Chron. viii. 5. The idea of a cor rupted form of the name may have arisen from the identification of the Slue/Man of Numbers with the Shuppinz (n5e) of I Chron. vii. 12. The Shim.
in sight and sound the Muppim and Huppim' of Gen. xlvi. 21, not to tempt commentators to their favourite theory of identification. It is, is our mind extremely doubtful whether the Shuphan of Numbers be the same person as the Shzepsim of I Chron. vii. The latter passage makes Shup pim a descendant of Benjamin of the fourth generation (Benjamin, Bela, In or Ir, Shuppim), whereas from the table in Numbers Shuphan is represented directly as a son of Benjamin, as Muppim is represented in Genesis. We have else
where observed [BECHER], on the use of the word `SON' in these genealogies, how it is not confined to a lineal descendant of the first succession, but includes grandsons and even remoter generations ; bearing this in mind we are not perplexed at finding the `Muppim' of Genesis and the Shuphan' [Shephupham] of Numbers described as, in each case, a son of Benjamin, whereas the Shephuphan' of I Chron. viii. is given as a grandson of the patriarch. This is after the manner of these tables, and may indicate that Muppim or Shephupham, becoming the head of a flourishing family, was raised a step in fact in the family-scale, and took the place of a deceased or obscure uncle in the organisation of the Benjamite Mishpachoth, or clans. It is, however, worthy of note that the Septuagint, at the very first mention of Muppim (Gen. xlvi. 2 I), expressly makes him, not son, but grandson of Benjamin. and son of Bela ; this was probably the true relationship of the man. Assuming this, we are still a generation at fault with respect to the SHUPP1M of I Chron. vii. We therefore prefer to conclude that this person is not identical with the subject of our article. Supposing, indeed, that Shuppim (ns',.)) and Shupham (or rather She phupham, nn)6vi) be variations of the self-same family-name, there is nothing unreasonable in the belief that it was borne, as the tables in their pre sent shape assert, by members of Benjamin's posterity in two successive generations, by Shuphan the uncle and Shuppim the nephew. [Snumni.] See also Simonis, Onomasticon, pp. 219, 361, 362. —P. H.