Eben-Ezer

"Stone of help." The memorial stone set up by Samuel to commemorate the divine assistance to Israel in their great battle against the Philistines, whom they routed¹ at Aphek, in the neighborhood of Mizpeh, in Benjamin, near the western entrance of the pass of Beth-horon. On this very battlefield, twenty years before, the Philistines routed the Israelites, "and slew of the army in the field about four thousand men"² In this extremity the Israelites fetched the ark out of Shiloh and carried it into their camp. The Philistines a second time immediately attacked them, and smote them with a very great slaughter, "for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken."³ And now in the same place the Philistines are vanquished, and the memorial stone is erected by Samuel.

The spot where the stone was erected was somewhere "between Mizpeh and Shen." Some have identified it with the modern Beit Iksa, others with Dayr Aban, a few miles east of Ain Shams.

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