Aphik

Meaning: Stronghold. (Judg. 1:31); Aphek (Josh. 13:4; 19:30)

This was the name of three biblical cities.

1. A city of the tribe of Asher. It was the scene of the licentious worship of the Syrian Aphrodite. The ruins of the temple, "magnificent ruins" in a "spot of strange wildness and beauty", are still seen at Afka, on the north-west slopes of Lebanon, near the source of the river Adonis (now Nahr Ibrahim), 12 miles east of Gebal.

2. A city of the tribe of Issachar, near to Jezreel (1 Sam. 4:1; 29:1; compare 28:4).

3. A town on the road from Damascus to Palestine, in the level plain east of Jordan, near which Ben-hadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings 20:26,30; 2 Kings 13:17). It has been identified with the modern Fik, 6 miles east of the Sea of Galilee, opposite Tiberias.