Caspin, Caspis

CASPIN, CASPIS. 1 Maccabees 5:24-36 narrates a campaign of Judas and Jonathan Maccabaeus into Trans-Jordan. Judas met Timotheus in the neighborhood of Bosra, prob. modern Buṩr el-Hariri, about twenty m. NE of el-Muzeirib. Defeating Timotheus, Judas “turned aside” and took Mizpeh and then “took Chaspho, Maked, and Bosor, and the other cities of Gilead” (v. 36). Moffat’s note on 2 Maccabees 12:13; APOT, I, 148 gives two possible identifications. Caspin may be identified with Ephron of Heshbon (1 Macc 5:46), or it may be el-Muzeirib. Marcus’ note (LCL, Jos. Antiq. XII, 8, 3) on “chasphamoke” says: “Variants Chastomaki, Chasphomakei, etc.: The readings of all the MSS of Josephus combine into one name, those of two cities named separately in 1 Maccabees: Chasphor (v. 1. Chasphor, cf. Kaspin, Caspin 2 Macc XII:13) and Maked; Casphor is identified by Pére Abel, following Hölscher, with el-Muzeirib situated on one of the tributaries of the Yarmuk, where now the old Roman road, the Pilgrim road of the Muslims and the Hejax railway all meet; Maked is more tentatively identified by Pére Abel with Tell el-Jam̂id on the Yarmuk River, c. 10 m. due W of el-Muzeirib.” This is the identification favored by G. A. Smith: EB, cols. 707, 708.

Aharoni and Avi-Yonah (Macmillan Bible Atlas, p. 120), identify the site with the modern Khisfin(e), and give a lucid account of the Maccabean campaign of 163 b.c. Khisfin is about six m. N of the Yarmuk and ten m. E of the Sea of Galilee.