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Aphek - location profile

Location and Setting

Four Canaanite cities were named Aphek. One was in the tribal area of Asher (Josh 19:30), another southwest of Hebron (Josh 15:53), and another on the Lower Golan Heights (1 Kgs 20:26,30; 2 Kgs 13:17).
The fourth city named Aphek was located eleven miles northeast of Joppa and nine miles inland from the coast on the Sharon Plain.
Aphek was situated at a strategic place on the International Coastal Highway. Here the route was compressed into a narrow "lane" only two miles wide between the swamp which the Yarkon River drained and the western slopes of the hill country of Samaria. This topography made Aphek a "choke point" that gave control over all trade and military traffic to whomever occupied it.

During the conquest of Canaan (1400 B.C.) Joshua and the Israelites killed the king of Aphek (on the Sharon Plain) and conquered the city (Josh 12:18).
In the eleventh century B.C., the Philistines controlled the International Coastal Highway from the border of Egypt northwards beyond Aphek. On one occasion, the Israelites came down from the hill country of Samaria and camped at Ebenezer with the intent of wresting control of the highway from the Philistines (1 Sam 4:1-2). Unsuccessful in their first attempt, the Israelites sent to Shiloh for the Ark of the Covenant, believing that the presence of the Ark would assure them of victory. Again, the Israelites attacked Aphek and again, the Philistines soundly defeated them. This time, the Philistines killed the sons of Eli, the high priest, and captured the Ark and carried it back to Philistia (1 Sam 4:3-11).
Again, in the last days of Saul’s reign, Aphek became a staging point for the Philistines as they prepared to march northward along the highway to face Israel at Jezreel. Achish recruited David and his men for the battle, but the other Philistine kings rejected him at Aphek, forcing Achish to send him back to Ziklag (1 Samuel 29).

Aharoni, Y. and M. Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
Bimson, John J., ed. Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995.
Huey Jr., F.B. "Aphek" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
Smith, William. The New Smith's Bible Dictionary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966.