the name of several cities mentioned in Scripture. 1. A city in the tribe of Asher, supposed to be the same place with the Ἀφέξαν which Eusebius and Sozomen place in Lebanon, on the river Adonis, where there was a famous temple of Venus. A village called Afka is still found in Lebanon, situated at the bottom of a valley, and may possibly mark the site of this town. 2. A town near which Benhadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings xx. 26, sq.); it seems to correspond to the Aphaca of Eusebius, situated to the east of the Sea of Galilee, and mentioned by Burckhardt, Seetzen, and others, under the name of Feik. 3. A city in the tribe of Issachar, not far from Jezreel, where the Philistines twice encamped before battles with the Israelites (1 Sam. iv. 1; xxix. 1). Either this or the first Aphek, but most probably this, was the Aphek mentioned in Josh. xii. 18, as a royal city of the Canaanites.

APHÉLIUM, or APHELION (ἀφέλειν from, and ἥλιος the sun), in Astronomy, is that point in any planet's orbit in which it is farthest distant from the sun, being that end of the greater axis of the elliptical orbit of the planet most remote from the focus where the sun is.