חֲפָרַיִם

From the study of Joshua 19:19

Range of meaning

A proper name. Its form looks like a dual (the Hebrew ending -ayim, meaning "a pair of") built on ḥāpar, "to dig, search out." Dug things like wells, cisterns and pits come from this root. The likely sense is "Two Wells" or "Two Pits." Some scholars think the -ayim ending on place names is sometimes just an old locative ending, not a true "two." In that case the name would simply mean "Pit-place" or "Well-place."

Against the English

All English versions transliterate it: Hapharaim (BSB, KJV, WEB), Haphraim (YLT). None translate the meaning, which is normal for place names.

Used elsewhere in the period

The name of Pharaoh Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak) is on a list of conquered places carved at Karnak after his campaign through Israel in the late 10th century BC (compare 1 Kings 14:25). That list includes a place usually read as ḥprm, Hapharaim. Eusebius's Onomasticon, a 4th-century AD gazetteer of biblical places, mentions a village "Aphraim" about six Roman miles north of Legio (near Megiddo). Some connect that village with this town, but the link is uncertain.