Bible Locations

This Aphek was east of the Sea of Galilee, on the Golan plateau, on the road from Damascus to the Jezreel Valley and Israel. In 1 Kings 20, Ben-hadad of Aram attacked Israel, saying Israel's God was "a god of the hills" and couldn't win on the plains. At Aphek, Israel's small army struck down 100,000 Aramean soldiers in one day, and when the rest fled into the city, "the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them." Ahab then made a treaty with Ben-hadad and let him go, and a prophet condemned him for it. Later, the dying Elisha told King Jehoash to shoot an arrow east, saying, "You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek" (2 Kings 13:17). The site is probably near the modern village of Afik, earlier the Arab village Fiq, on the western edge of the Golan. Tel Soreg and En Gev have also been suggested.