Abstract

Abstract Efforts have been long made to locate Aphek described as an Aramaean fortified city in 1 Kgs 20 and various identifications have been offered. Yet, literary analysis of 1 Kgs 20 and the historical situation emerging from contemporary extra-biblical sources point to anachronistic features of the story in 1 Kgs 20 and its late authorship. The selection of the toponym Aphek in the battle account should be regarded as a rhetorical technique of the author who wished to produce a literary effect upon readers who were familiar with the Israelites’ defeat at Aphek in the stories in 1 Sam 4 and 29. The interchange of the words between mîšôr and ʿămāqîm in vv. 23, 25 and 28 may indicate that the author had no intention to specify the battle place in this imaginative work.

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