Shaaph
Shaaph, a son of Caleb's concubine Maacah, was the father of Madmannah.
Biography
Shaaph was a son of Caleb by his concubine Maacah and is identified as the father of Madmannah, a settlement in the Negev region of southern Judah (1 Chronicles 2:49). He appears within a cluster of names describing Caleb's offspring through various wives and concubines, reflecting the complex household structure of prominent Israelite patriarchs of the early settlement period. The identification of Shaaph as father of a place-name, Madmannah, follows a common Hebrew genealogical convention in which founding ancestors and eponymous founders of cities are listed as fathers of those settlements. Madmannah was later assigned to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:31), linking Shaaph's lineage to the territorial inheritance of Israel in Canaan.
Significance
Shaaph son of Maacah represents the intersection of family lineage and territorial settlement that characterizes much of the early tribal geography of Judah. His role as progenitor of Madmannah illustrates how the biblical genealogies function simultaneously as family records and settlement maps, encoding in the language of kinship the historical process by which Israelite clans established towns across the Promised Land. By tracing settlement origins to named ancestors, the biblical authors affirmed that the land was not merely conquered territory but a divinely apportioned inheritance, inhabited by families with sacred identities rooted in the covenantal story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Shaaph thus embodies the link between patriarchal promise and the tangible reality of Israel's life in the land.
Verse Appearances (1)
1Chr
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]