(strength), the name of several places in Palestine
- A royal city of the Canaanites, the king of which was killed by Joshua (Joshua 12:18), probably the same as Aphekah in Joshua 15:53
- A city, apparently in the extreme north of Asher (Joshua 19:30), from which the Canaanites were not ejected (Judges 1:31), though here it is Aphik. This is probably the same place as Aphek (Joshua 13:4) on the extreme north “border of the Amorites,” 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 fatal battle in which the sons of Eli were killed and the ark was taken (1 Samuel 4:1). This would be somewhere to the northwest of and at no great distance from Jerusalem.
- The scene of another encampment of the Philistines, before an encounter not less disastrous than that just named—the defeat and death of Saul (1 Samuel 29:1). It is possible that it may be the same place as the preceding.
- A city on the military road from Syria to Israel (1 Kings 20:26). It is now found in Fik, at the head of the Wady Fik, six miles east of the Sea of Galilee.