Ophrah
עׇפְרָה
Where was biblical Ophrah? At Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah, about 20 km north of Jerusalem. I mark it very likely.
Philistine raiders poured out of their camp at Michmash in three columns, and one of them took the road north toward Ophrah to plunder the hills of Benjamin.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Ofra, Afra, Ephron, Ephraim, Apharaema, Taybeh
- Location
- 31.9544° N, 35.3003° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Ophrah appears in the list of Benjamin's towns, and the raid tells us which way to look. The Philistines were camped at Michmash. A column heading "toward Ophrah" was heading north, and north of Michmash lies Taybeh.
Eusebius places a village called Aphra five Roman miles east of Beit El. That fits Taybeh well. The village has its own memory as well. Local tradition says it was called Afra until Saladin renamed it Taybeh, which means good or pleasant. That story is reported, not proven. But an Ottoman tax register from 1596 already calls the village "good of name."
The town probably shows up once more under a slightly different spelling. When Abijah king of Judah fought Jeroboam, he captured Beit El, Jeshanah and Ephron. Ephron is most likely this same Ophrah, a border town that changed hands between the two kingdoms.
Don't confuse it with Gideon's Ophrah, which belonged to the clan of Abiezer in Manasseh, further north, and whose site is still uncertain.
Visiting today
Taybeh is a living Christian village, known for its brewery. You can see the ruins of a Byzantine church of St George and a Crusader castle, but nothing from the biblical period is on display.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Ophrah on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Baal Hazor 3 km northwest
- Ai 6 km southwest
- Bethel (Beit El) 7 km southwest
- Michmash 10 km south
- Mizpah 11 km southwest
- Shiloh 11 km north