Shiphi is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Shiphi was a man of the tribe of Judah, known to us only through a single genealogical record in the Old Testament. He is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:37, where the Chronicler traces the line of a man named Ziza: “And Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah.” In this chain, Shiphi is the father of Ziza and the son of Allon. He stands four generations removed from Shemaiah, the earliest ancestor named in this particular register.
The setting of this verse is the great tribal genealogy of Judah that occupies much of 1 Chronicles 4. Within that chapter, the text moves through the descendants of Judah’s various clans and families, preserving names that would otherwise be lost. The immediate context concerns the families associated with the Simeonites, who are recorded within Judah’s territory, and this list of names appears in a section describing men who lived in the days of King Hezekiah and took part in the expansion of their settlements. Shiphi himself is not described as doing anything; he is simply a link in the family line that leads to Ziza.
Scripture says nothing else about Shiphi—no deed, no word, no character trait. He appears once in the entire King James Bible, and only as a name in a genealogy. What we know of him is limited to his place in Judah’s family tree and his relationship to his son Ziza, who is named as part of a group of leaders in that ancestral record.
The Name
The name Shiphi is a Hebrew name, and its meaning is not clearly recoverable from the biblical text or from standard lexical sources with any certainty. Some have suggested a connection to a root carrying the sense of abundance or fullness, but this is not well established, and the name is too rare to settle the question confidently. What can be said plainly is that Scripture does not explain the name, and no meaning should be asserted as though it were certain. Like many names in the genealogies, it may preserve a family memory or an ancient word whose sense has been lost.
A Closing Thought
Most of us will never be remembered in a public record. Shiphi’s entire legacy in Scripture is one line in a list of names—no story, no achievement, no famous last words. Yet he belonged to a family, and through that family to the people of God, and his name was counted worth preserving. There is quiet comfort in that. Faithfulness is often hidden, and God’s memory is not measured by how much of our lives is written down. He knows the names of those who simply belonged to His people and passed the line along.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 4:37 — And Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah;