Chephirah
Chephi'rah (Hebrews in Joshua always with the art. hak-Kephirah´, הִכּפַרָה, the village, Sept. Κεφιρά; but in Ezra Καφαρά, Nehemiah Καφερά v. r. Καφιρά), one of the four cities of the Gibeonitish Hivites with whom Joshua made the league (Jos 9:17; comp. ver. 7); assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (18:26), and occupied by the remnant of the same tribe after the Captivity (Ezr 2:25; Ne 7:29). Schwarz (Palest. p. 127) thinks it is one of "the villages (Kephirim, כּפַרַים) in the plain of Ono" (Ne 6:2). The Samaritan Version, at Ge 13:3, renders Hai (Ai) by Kephrah (כפרה); but this cannot be Chephirah, since both Ai and it are mentioned together in Joshua 9 (comp. 3 with 17), and in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah already quoted. Dr. Robinson seems to have discovered it under the scarcely altered name of Kefîr (Biblioth. Sacra, 1853, p. 124), in the mountain country on the western confines of Benjamin, about two miles east of Ajalon (Later Bib. Res. p. 146). The "extensive site called Keferrut," suggested by Thomson (Land and Book, 2:304), is too far N.W. The same objection applies to another ruined village, el-Kefir, laid down in this direction on Van de Velde's Map.
