Shepham
She'pham (Heb. Shepham, שׁפָ, fruitful [Gesen.], or bare [Furst]; Sept. Σεφαμάρ [running it on into the following word, with the ה directive]), a place mentioned only in the specification by Moses of the eastern boundary of the Promised Land. (Nu 34:10-11), the first landmark from Hazer-enan, at which the northern boundary terminated, and lying between it and Riblah. The ancient interpreters (Targ. Pseudo-Jon., Saadia) render the name by Apameia; but it seems uncertain whether by this they intend the Greek city of that name on the Orontes, fifty miles below Antioch, or whether they use it as a synonym of Banias or Dan, as Schwarz affirms (Palest. p. 27). No trace of the name appears, however, in that direction. Porter (Damascus, 2, 354) would fix Hazer-enan at Kuryetein, seventy miles east northeast of Damascus, which would remove Shepham into a totally different region, in which there is equally little trace of it. The Riblah mentioned in the above passage was not the city of that name in the hand of Hamath (see Keil, Comment. ad loc.), but a much more southern one. SEE RIBLAH. The other more definitely known localities adjoining seem to point out, a position for Shepham not far from the later Caesarea- Philippi (q.v.).
