אֲפֵק
Aphek
BDB lists 4 entries for ‘Aphek’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H663 appears — 9 distinct verses across 5 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Joshua 3 verses
- Joshua 12:18 אֲפֵק֙ n Proper the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;
- Joshua 13:4 אֲפֵ֑קָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites;
- Joshua 19:30 וַ/אֲפֵ֖ק conj + n Proper Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 4:1 בַ/אֲפֵֽק prep + n Proper The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
- 1 Samuel 29:1 אֲפֵ֑קָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem Now the Philistines gathered together all their hosts to Aphek: and the Israelites encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel.
1 Kings 2 verses
- 1 Kings 20:26 אֲפֵ֔קָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem It happened at the return of the year, that Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel.
- 1 Kings 20:30 אֲפֵקָ/ה֮ n Proper + sfx dem But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.
2 Kings 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
אפק (ʼĂphêq) is a Hebrew name most often rendered “Aphek.” Scripture first uses it in Joshua 12:18. It turns up in 9 verses across 5 books, an uncommon footprint. It concentrates in Joshua, which alone accounts for 33% of its uses. For the data behind this summary, explore 9-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H663 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,481
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,481 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 9 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 9 verses · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Aphek 8×
- American Standard Version: Aphek 7×
- Berean Standard Bible: Aphek 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Aphek 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H663 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H663 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H663 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H663 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 4 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. city near Jezreel (Assyrian Apḳu, cf. DlPa 287) Jos 12:18 1 S 29:1 (אֲפֵ֑קָה, so) 1 K 20:26, 30 cf. 2 K 13:17. e.g. Joshua 12:18
- 2. city in tribe of Asher Jos 19:30 Ju 1:31 (אֲפִיק). e.g. Joshua 19:30
- 3. city NE. of Beirût, mod. Afqa Jos 13:4 אֲכֵּ֑קָה v. Di. e.g. Joshua 13:4
- 4. place near Mizpah 1 S 4:1 (cf. 7:12). Jos 12:18; 1 S 4:1; 29:1 and 2 K 13:22 𝔊L; town not near Jezreel but at N. end of Philistine plain; cf. 𝔊Ll.c. WeComp 254 Dr 1 S 29:11 RSOTJC 2, 435 GASmGeogr. 400 f. BuhlGeogr. 212 (and N.) BuRS 235 f.; more doubtful are 1 K 20:26, 30; 2 K 13:17 (Kit 1 K 20:26); these, with Jos 19:30 Ju 1:31, might denote an Apheḳ near Jezreel. e.g. 1 Samuel 4:1
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
(Ju 1:31) n.pr.loc. Aphek (perhaps enclosure, or fortress).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אפק (ʼâphaq) (H662) — to hold.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אַפֵּק
- (Af. of נפק q. v.) to bring out, take away.—לְאַפּוּקֵי to the exclusion of. Ned. 41ᵃ; a. fr. = למעוטי, להוציא, v. מעט, יצא.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 8 distinct written forms H663 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֲפֵ֑קָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 29:1 | 2 |
| אֲפִ֖יק | Noun, Proper | Judges 1:31 | 1 |
| אֲפֵ֔קָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 20:26 | 1 |
| אֲפֵק֙ | Noun, Proper | Joshua 12:18 | 1 |
| אֲפֵקָ/ה֮ | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 20:30 | 1 |
| בַ/אֲפֵֽק | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 4:1 | 1 |
| בַּ/אֲפֵ֖ק | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 13:17 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲפֵ֖ק | Noun, Proper | Joshua 19:30 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H663, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Aphek). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(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.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
Aphekah, Aphik, strength; a rapid torrent
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 8 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
