Chephirah is one of four towns named in

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. ' Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

9:17 along with Gibeon, Beeroth, and

Kiriath-Jearim Kiriath-Jearim (also Kiryat Ye'arim; he, קִרְיַת-יְעָרִים ', "city of woods"; grc, Καριαθιαριμ ; Latin: ') was a city in the Land of Israel. It is mentioned 18 times in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical place was identif ...

. The context is a story explaining a peace treaty 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 the natives of this region. Chephirah appears again in 18:26 as one of the towns assigned to the

Tribe of Benjamin According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin () was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob (later given the name Israel) and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentat ...

. No other noteworthy event occurred at Chephirah for hundreds of years until it was named again in the parallel passages of

Ezra Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe ('' sofer'') and priest ('' kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρ� ...

2:25,

Nehemiah Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...

7:29, and apocryphal

1 Esdras 1 Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας Αʹ), also Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is the ancient Greek Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use within the early church, and among many modern Christians with varying deg ...

5:19. Here the context is not of the location, but of the families who formerly resided there prior to being taken captive to Babylon. The people of Chephirah are grouped together with those of Beeroth and Kirjath Jearim, but the Gibeonites comprise a separately numbered family. The location of Chephirah is now known as Khirbet el-Kafira.{{cite book, author1=Lester L. Grabbe, author2=Oded Lipschits, title=Judah Between East and West: The Transition from Persian to Greek Rule (ca. 400-200 BCE), url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2EzJSMgWDcsC&pg=PA64, date=28 July 2011, publisher=A&C Black, isbn=978-0-567-04684-0, page=64

References

Hebrew Bible cities Book of Joshua

See also

References