APHEK

(Aʹphek) [fortress].

1. A town evidently N of Sidon mentioned to Joshua by Jehovah as among the places yet to be conquered. (Josh. 13:4) It is presently identified with Aphaca (modern Afqa) about twenty-three miles (37 kilometers) NE of Beirut. It lies at the source of the Nahr Ibrahim, anciently known as the river Adonis, which flows down to Byblos on the Mediterranean coast.

2. A town within the territory of Asher but which the tribe was unsuccessful in possessing. (Josh. 19:24, 30) It is called “Aphik” at Judges 1:31. A suggested identification is Tell Kurdaneh, about six miles (9.7 kilometers) S-SE of Acco.

3. A city that, on the basis of the cities mentioned with it, was evidently in the Plain Of Sharon. Its king was among those slain by Joshua. (Josh. 12:18) Centuries later, but prior to Saul’s kingship, the Philistines encamped here before their victory over Israel, drawn up at nearby Ebenezer. (1 Sam. 4:1) Its location is considered to be at Ras el-ʽAin at the source of the Yarkon River.· At this site the town of Antipatris, mentioned at Acts 23:31, was later built. Josephus (Wars of the Jews, Book II, chap. XIX, par. 1) mentions an “Aphek” in connection with Antipatris. Shiloh, from which the Israelites brought the ark of the covenant, is about twenty miles (32 kilometers) distant.

4. A town apparently located in the Plain of Jezreel between the towns of Shunem and Jezreel. In the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites that resulted in King Saul’s death, the original position of the Philistines was at Shunem, while the Israelites took a position on Mount Gilboa. (1 Sam. 28:4) The account thereafter indicates that the Philistines advanced to Aphek while Israel descended to the spring at Jezreel. At Aphek the axis lords of the Philistines now reviewed their marshaled forces and discovered David and his men accompanying Achish in the rear. David’s forces were ordered to leave on the following morning and then the Philistines advanced to the battle site at Jezreel. (1 Sam. 29:1-11) From there they pushed the defeated Israelites back up into Mount Gilboa, where the slaughter was completed and Saul and his three sons died.—1 Sam. 31:1-8.

This Aphek may be the same location mentioned at 1 Kings 20:26 as the site of the defeat of the Syrian Ben-hadad. The retreating Syrians pulled back to the city, only to have its wall fall upon twenty-seven thousand of them. (1 Ki. 20:29, 30) It likewise seems to be the place prophetically indicated to King Jehoash by the dying prophet Elisha as the point where the Syrians would suffer future defeats at the hands of Israelites. (2 Ki. 13:17-19) Some authorities, however, would place the Aphek mentioned in these texts as lying in Transjordan about three miles (5 kilometers) E of the Sea of Galilee, where the modern village of Afik or Fik is found.