Shup'pim (Heb, 67«»/)/wh', CS'wS or [1 Chron, vii, 15] D^QIT, prob. serpents [Gesen,], or a contraction for Shephupham; Sept, ^air(pii>, v, r, ^aptip, Maficptiv, etc), the name of two persons,
1. In 1 Chron, vii, 12, "Shiippim and Iluppim, the children of Ir," are reckoned among the posterity of Benjamin, B,C, 1850, Ir is, by some, thought to be the same as Iri the son of Bela the son of Henjamin, and in that case Shuppim wotdd be the great-grandson of Benjamin. In Numb, xxvi, 39 he and his brother are called Shupham and Hupham, while in 1 Chron, viii; 5 they appear as Shephuphan and Huram, sons of Bela, and in Gen, xlvi, 21 as Miippim and Huppim, sons of Benjamin, To avoid the difficulty of supposing that Benjamin had a great-grandson at the time he went down to Elgypt, lord A, Hervey conjectures that Shup- pim, or Shephuphan, was a son of Benjamin, whose fam- ily was reckoned with that of Ir, or Iri, But this is ar- bitrary and unnecessary, as the date is that of Jacob's death. As he is elsewhere (1 Chron, v, 15) similarly men- tioned as the brother of Huphan or Huppim, who was a son of Becher and grandson of Benjamin, he must have been such likewise. See Benjamin; Jacob,
2. A Levite of the family either of Kohath or Merari who, together with Hosah, had charge of the Temple- gate Shallecheth, in accordance with an arrangement originallv instituted by David (1 Chron. xxvi, IG), B,C, 1013,
Shur (Heb, Shur, -:rr ; Sept, ^ovp ; Vulg, Su?-), a place just without the eastern border of Egypt, It,s name, if Hebrew or Arabic, signifies " a wall ;" and there can be little doubt that it is of Shemitic origin from the position of the place. The Sept, seems to have thus in- terpreted it, if we maj' judge from the obscure rendering of 1 Sam, xxvii, 8, where it must be remarked the ex- traordinary form rtXnp\l^olip is found. This word is evi- dently a transcription of the words n"ivj , , . Cbl"72, the former, save the initial particle, not being translated. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan interpret Shur by Chagara (N^Sn), and Josephus by Pelusium (YlrjXov- ffinv yAnt. vi, 7, 3]) ; but the latter was called Sin by the Hebrews.
Shur is first mentioned in the narrative of Hagar's flight from Sarah. Abraham was then in southernmost Palestine, and when Hagar fled she was found by an angel "by the fountain in the way to Shur" ((ien. xvi, 7). Probably she was endeavoring to return to Egypt, the country of her birth — she may not have been a pure Egyptian— and had reached a well in the inland cara- van route. Abraham afterwards "dwelled between Ka- desh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar" (xx, 1). From this it would seem either that Shur lay in the territory of the Philistines of Gerar, or that this pastoral tribe waiuiered in a region extending from Kadesh to Shur, See (iEHAK, In neither case can we ascertain the posi- tion of Shur. The first clear indication of this occurs in the account of Ishmael's posterity : " And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that [is] before Eii;yiit, as thou goest towards Assyria" (xxv, 18). With this should be compared tlie mention of the extent of the Amalekitish territory given in this passage, "And Saul smoie the Amalekites from Havilah [until] thou comest to Shur, that [is] over against Egyjit" (1 Sam. xv, 7). It is also important to notice that the Geshurites, (iezrites, and Amalekites, whom David smote, are descril)ed as "from an ancient period the inhaliitants of tiie land, as thou comest to Shur, even unto tlie land of Egypt" (xxvii. 8), Tlie Wilderness of Shur was entered by the Israelites after they had crossed the Bed Sea (Exod, xv, 22. 23), It was also called the Wilderness of FAham (Numb.
SHURIASAWARXEX
K
SHUSHAN
xxxiii, 8). The first passage presents one difficulty, 1 upon which the Sept. ami Vulg. throw no liglit, in tlie mention of Assyria. If, however, we compare it with later places, we find fTTl'i'X nzXS here remarkably like ri'ir:: ^X"3 in 1 Sam. xxvii, f<, and "iVi TjXIS in XV, 7, as if the same phrase had been orij^inally found in the tirst as a gloss; but it may have been there trans- posed, and have originally followed the mention of Hav- ilah. In the notices of the Amalekitish and Ishmael- itish region, in which the latter succeeded the former, there can be no question that a strip of Northern Arabia is intended, stretching from the Isthmus of Suez towards, and probably to, the Persian (iulf. The name of the wilderness may perhai)s indicate a somewhat southern position. Shur may thus have been a fortihed town east of the ancient head of the Ked Sea, but in the hands of the Arabs, or at one time the Philistines, not of the Egyptians. From its being spoken of as a limit, it was probably the last Arabian town before entering Egypt. The hieroglyphic inscriptions have not been found to throw any light upon this question. The iShaiu or ^li/iulit mentioned in them is an important country, per- haps Syria. — Smith.
According to recent authorities the "Wilderness of Shur" is substantially identical with the modern desert tl-Jifar, which extends between the Ked Sea and the IVIediterranean from Pelusium to the south-west borders of Palestine (Kosenmiiller, .1 Herth. iii, 241 sq.). It con- sists of white shifting sand (yet see Schubert, ii, 273), lias very little signs of habitations, and is some seven davs' journey across. The simple word Shur evidently designates, in general, a high ridge running north and south in the form of a high wall, according to the mean- ing of the word before, i. e. on the east side of Egypt (Gen. XXV, 18 ; Exod. xv, 22). This can be no other than the high range to the east of .Suez, the continua- tion of the great chain of .Jebel et-Tih northward to- wards the ^lediterranean, forming a sharp ridge or a high wall as seen from a distance east and west, and a graiid barrier on the east side of Egypt and to the west of the great plain in the interior of the wilderness called Des- ert et-Tih. There is no other range w-hatever of the kind between Egypt and the interior of the wilderness (see Palmer, J)ese)t nf the Kj-odii.i, p. 44). This must be, therefore, the Wilderness of Shur. It is called by the Egyptians, and those who live to the west of it, Jp- bel er-lialmh, or the Mountain of Hahah. l?ut (accord- ing to some travellers) bj' the Arabs of the interior of the wilderness, on the east side of the range, it is called Jebel i.<-,Si'ir. or the ^lountain of Shur.