TAHPANES
(Tahʹpan·es), Tahpanhes (Tahʹpan·hes), Tehaphnehes (Te·haphʹne·hes) [perhaps, mansion of the Nubian].
A city in Egypt regularly mentioned with other cities of northern (Lower) Egypt, such as Noph (Memphis), On (Heliopolis), and Pibeseth (Bubastis).
During the last years of the Judean kingdom, the prophet Jeremiah consistently warned against political alliances with Egypt or reliance on Egypt for help against the rising power of Babylon. Noph (Memphis), the Egyptian capital, and Tahpanhes are spoken of as “feeding on [Judah and Jerusalem] at the crown of the head” due to the apostasy of the Jews. Any support from Egypt was doubtless obtained at a high cost to the royal leaders of Judah; but they would become ashamed of Egypt, even as they had become ashamed of Assyria.—Jer. 2:1, 2, 14-19, 36.
AFTER JERUSALEM’S FALL, REMNANT FLEE THERE
Following the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 607 B.C.E., and the subsequent assassination of Gedaliah, the remnant of Jews went down to Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them. The first place mentioned at which they arrived (or settled) in Egypt is Tahpanhes. (Jer. 43:5-7) This would evidently locate Tahpanhes in the eastern Delta region, that is, the NE corner of Lower Egypt. Some of the refugees settled in Tahpanhes. (Jer. 44:1, 7, 8) On arrival at Tahpanhes, Jeremiah enacted a prophetic scene directed by Jehovah, placing stones in the mortar of “the terrace of bricks that is at the entrance of the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes” in the presence of the other Jews. Then he made the proclamation that Nebuchadnezzar would come and place his throne and extend his state tent right over those very stones.—Jer. 43:8-13; compare 46:13, 14.
EZEKIEL FORETELLS OVERTHROW
In faraway Babylon (in the twenty-seventh year of the first exile, that is, 591 B.C.E.), the prophet Ezekiel also foretold that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Egypt and “in Tehaphnehes the day will actually grow dark,” for Jehovah would there break the yoke bars and the pride of Egypt’s strength. This statement and Ezekiel’s reference to the “dependent towns” of Tahpanhes indicate that the city was one of importance and size.—Ezek. 29:19; 30:1, 2, 10-18.
SUGGESTED ORIGIN OF NAME
Some authorities translate the name Tahpanhes as meaning (in Egyptian) “the fortress of Penhase,” Penhase being a general from the southern city of Thebes who overcame rebellious elements in the Delta region of Egypt, apparently in the latter part of the second millennium B.C.E. Professor T. O. Lambdin states that this “resulted in the perpetuation of his fame in the names of several places.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 4, p. 510) Professor K. A. Kitchen also refers to the finding in Egypt of a Phoenician letter considered to be of the sixth century B.C.E., bearing the same consonants (Thpnhs) as in the Hebrew spelling of Tahpanhes, though not identifying the location of such place.
The Greek Septuagint Version renders Tahpanhes as Taphʹnas, and it is generally believed that this name coincides with that of an important fortified city on Egypt’s eastern border called Daphnai by the Greek writers of the classical period. For this reason most geographers identify Tahpanhes with Tell Defneh, nearly thirty miles (48.3 kilometers) S-SW of Port Said and about twenty-two miles (35.4 kilometers) SW of Pelusium, the suggested site of Sin.