TAPHNE (EBR. TAPHANES; IN EZ. 30, 18 TÉPHANEHES)

TAPHNE (Hebr. Taphanes; in Ez. 30:18 Téphanehes). — An Egyptian city (Ez. 30:18) where, after the assassination of Gedaliah, many Jews sought refuge to escape Babylonian reprisals (Jer. 43:7-9). There was probably already a Jewish colony there (ibid. 44:1; 46:14). The prophet Jeremiah, who, together with his secretary Baruch, had been forced to emigrate there, continued his mission in the city (ibid. 43:8) and, according to a late tradition, was killed there by the Jews themselves.

The city, which the Septuagint renders as Ταφναί (Ταφναίς, Vulgate T., Taphnis), probably corresponds to Δαφναί, an Egyptian fortress on the Pelusian branch of the Nile (Herodotus, II, 30, 107), identified with Tell ed-Defenneh, northeast of the Delta.