Josiphiah

Josiphiah appears once in the text, named in the roster of clan heads who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem with Ezra under Artaxerxes.

Father of a Returning Chief

The chapter opens by framing the list: "Now these are the heads of their fathers' [houses], and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:" (Ezr 8:1). The roll then runs by clan, each entry naming the family-head of the day, his patronymic, and the count of males traveling under him. The Bani entry runs: "And of the sons of Bani, Shelomith the son of Josiphiah; and with him a hundred and threescore males." (Ezr 8:10). Josiphiah is named only as Shelomith's father — the prior generation behind a chief who led 160 men back to Jerusalem.