Aphek - Definition and Overview

The name Aphek refers to either:

• A city of the tribe of Asher. It was the scene of the licentious worship of the Syrian Aphrodite. The ruins of the temple, "magnificent ruins" in a "spot of strange wildness and beauty", are still seen at Afka, on the north-west slopes of Lebanon, near the source of the river Adonis (now Nahr Ibrahim), 12 miles east of Gebal.
• A city of Asher from which the Canaanites were not driven out (Judges 1:31), identified with the Aphaca of classical times, the modern Afka.
• A place at which the Philistines encamped while the Israelites pitched in Eben-Ezer, before the battle in which the sons of Eli were killed. (1 Samuel 4:1 )
• A city of the tribe of Issachar, near to Jezreel (1 Sam. 4:1; 29:1; comp. 28:4). The scene of another encampment of the Philistines, which led to the defeat and death of Saul.
• A town on the road from Damascus to Palestine, near which Benhadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings 20:26, 30; 2 Kings 13:17).It is now found in Fik, at the head of the Wady Fik, six miles east of the Sea of Galilee.