Ahikam

Ahikam (meaning brother of support or a brother who raises up) was the son of Shaphan the royal secretary and one of the five officials sent by King Josiah to consult the prophetess Huldah about the book of the law discovered in the temple (2 Kings 22:12; 2 Chronicles 34:20). He was thus a participant in the religious renewal of Josiah's reign. After the fall of Jerusalem, when Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah as governor over those remaining in Judah, Gedaliah was revealed to be Ahikam's son — placing Ahikam's family at the center of post-destruction Judahite governance.

Ahikam's most notable individual act was his defense of the prophet Jeremiah after the latter's temple sermon, when the priests and prophets demanded Jeremiah's death (Jeremiah 26:24). Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. This protection was significant enough to be specifically noted by the narrator, and it likely saved Jeremiah's life at a critical juncture in his ministry.