Eben-Ezer (, ''’éḇen hā-‘ézer'', "the stone of help") is a location that is mentioned by the

Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshu ...

as the scene of battles between the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

and

Philistines The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, when ...

. It is specified as having been less than a

day's journey A day's journey in pre-modern literature, including the Bible, ancient geographers and ethnographers such as Herodotus, is a measurement of distance. In the Bible, it is not as precisely defined as other Biblical measurements of distance; the dis ...

by foot from Shiloh, near Aphek, in the neighbourhood of Mizpah, near the western entrance of the pass of

Bethoron Bethoron ( he, בֵית־חוֹרֹ֔ן, lit=house of Horon; grc, Ὡρωνείν), also Beth-Horon, was the name of two adjacent ancient towns strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road, guarding the "ascent of Beth-Horon". The towns are ...

. Its location has not been identified in modern times with much certainty, with some identifying it with

Beit Iksa Beit Iksa ( ar, بيت إكسا;) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli West Bank barrier, and outside Palestinians are de ...

, and others with

Dayr Aban Dayr Aban (also spelled Deir Aban; ar, دير آبان) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, located on the lower slope of a high ridge that formed the western slope of a mountain, to the east of Beit Shemesh. It was fo ...

Biblical mentions

The placename appears in the Books of Samuel in two narratives: * In the first narrative (), the Philistines defeat the Israelites, even though the Israelites bring the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an e ...

onto the battlefield in hope of bringing about a divinely assured victory. The victorious Philistines capture the Ark, and do not return it until many months late
(1 Samuel 6:1–2)
* In the second narrative (), the Israelites defeat the Philistines after Samuel has offered a sacrifice. Samuel puts up a stone in memorial and names it ''Eben-Ezer'' (the placename in the previous narrative resulting from this). The hymn "

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is a Christian hymn written by the pastor and hymnodist Robert Robinson, who penned the words in the year 1758 at the age of 22. Tunes In the United States, the hymn is usually set to an American folk tune ...

" refers to this monument.

Modern-day placement

It is currently accepted among many Israeli archaeologists and historians to place the Eben-Ezer of the first narrative in the immediate neighborhood of modern-day

Kafr Qasim Kafr Qasim ( ar, كفر قاسم, he, כַּפְר קָאסִם), also spelled as Kafr Qassem, Kufur Kassem, Kfar Kassem and Kafar Kassem, is a hill-top city in Israel with an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab population. It is located about east ...

, near

Antipatris Antipatris (, grc, Αντιπατρίς) was a city built during the first century BC by Herod the Great, who named it in honour of his father, Antipater. The site, now a national park in central Israel, was inhabited from the Chalcolithic P ...

(ancient city Aphek), while the second battle's location is deemed to be insufficiently well-defined in the Biblical text. The other proposed site is called "Isbet Sartah". Some scholars hold that there were more than one Aphek.

C. R. Conder Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder. ...

identified the Aphek of Eben-Ezer with a ruin (''Khirbet'') some distant from

(believed to be Eben-Ezer), and known by the name ''Marj al-Fikiya''; the name ''al-Fikiya'' being an Arabic etymological variant of Aphek.

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...

, when writing about Eben-Ezer in his ''Onomasticon'', says that it is "the place from which the Gentiles seized the Ark, between Jerusalem and Ascalon, near the village of Bethsamys (Beit Shemesh)", a locale that corresponds with Conder's identification. The same site, near Beth Shemesh, has also been identified by Epiphanius as being Eben-Ezer.''Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures - The Syriac Version'' (ed. James Elmer Dean), University of Chicago Press 1935, p. 73 (§ 68)

References

External links

* * {{Sites of the Israelite Settlement Hebrew Bible places Books of Samuel

Biblical mentions

Modern-day placement

See also

References

External links