Eben-Ezer

'the stone of help') is a location that is mentioned by the Books of Samuel as the scene of battles between the Israelites and Philistines.

It is specified as having been less than a day's journey by foot from Shiloh, near Aphek, in the neighbourhood of Mizpah, near the western entrance of the pass of Bethoron.

[1] The placename appears in the Books of Samuel in two narratives: 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, near Antipatris (ancient city Aphek).

C. R. Conder identified the Aphek of Eben-Ezer[5] with a khirbet "ruin" some 3.7 miles (6 km) distant from Dayr Aban (believed to be Eben-Ezer), and known by the name Marj al-Fikiya; the name al-Fikiya being an Arabic etymological variant of Aphek.

[6] Eusebius, 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)",[7] a locale that corresponds with Conder's identification.