Ophni

OPHNI (ŏf'nī, Heb. hā-‘ophnî). A city in the northern part of Benjamin, mentioned only in Josh.18.24. It lay about two and a half miles (four km.) NW of Bethel on one of the two main roads northward from Jerusalem to Samaria. Now called Jifneh.

---

OPHNI ŏf’ nī (עָפְנִ֖י). A place allotted to the tribe of Benjamin after Israel, following its Egyp. exodus, had taken possession of Pal. (Josh 18:24). Grollenberg’s Atlas of the Bible lists the exact site as unknown. It has been suggested that the place is the same as Gophna, a town referred to by Josephus (War III. iii. 5). This place survives in the modern Jiffa, and is located c. three m. NW of Bethel (see Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A place in the territory of Benjamin (Jos 18:24). The modern Jifneh, in a fine vale West of the road to Nablus and 2 1/2 miles Northwest of Bethel, might suit as to position; but the change in the initial letter from `ain to jim is not easy. This is the Gophna of the rabbis (compare Josephus, Jewish Wars, III, iii, 5).