Capharabis

Capharabis (Καφαραβίς.), a town of Idumea, with a very strong wall, surrendered by the citizens to Cerealis, the general of Vespasian, after a siege thus rendered unexpectedly short (Josephus, War, 4:9, 9). Reland (Palaest. p. 684) thinks it the Kephar-Bish (q.v.) of the rabbins; but Schwarz refers it to the Kephar-Abus (כפר אבוס) of the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedr. 2), and finds it in the well near Gedor, in Wady Surar (meaning apparently that marked on Van de Velde's Map a little south-east of Ekron), which he says is still called "the Spring of Abis." This position, however, seems too northerly.