Bible Locations

Shen appears in 1 Samuel 7:12, after Israel's victory over the Philistines at Mizpah: "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far the Lord has helped us.'" Shen means "tooth," so it may have been a sharp rock or crag. The Greek Septuagint and Syriac versions read "Jeshanah," a town in Benjamin mentioned in 2 Chronicles 13:19, which many translations follow. If so, it was near Bethel, north of Mizpah. Its location is unknown, but it was in the hill country of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem. The Ebenezer stone was a memorial of God's help, reversing the earlier defeat at another Ebenezer, where the Philistines had captured the ark. The phrase "Thus far the Lord has helped us" became a well-known expression of thanks.