("hamlet of the Ammonites".) Among Benjamin's towns (Jos_18:24). The name alludes to some Ammonite inroad up the ravines from the Jordan valley to the Benjamite highlands.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Chephar-haammonai
(Hebrews Kephar´ ha-Ammonay´, כְּפִר הָעִמּוֹנָי, village of the Ammonites; or, as the margin corrects, Kephar´ ha-Ammonah´, הָעִמּוֹנָה כְּפִֵר, village of [the] Ammonah, i.e. Ammonitis; Sept. Καφαραμμονά, but v.r. Καραφὰ καὶ Κεφιρὰ καὶ Μονί, blending with Ophni following; Vulg. villa Emona), a place in the N.E. section of the tribe of Benjamin (q.v.), mentioned between Ophrah and Ophni (Jos_18:24. Schwarz (Palest. p. 126) thinks it is the "Ammonai" (so he reads for "Emmaus") repaired by Barchides (1Ma_9:50). In the Onomasticon (s.v.) it is merely called "Ammonai (Euseb. Α᾿μμωενία; Jerome, Amonai), in the tribe of Benjamin." In the name of this hamlet, SEE CAPHAR-, is doubtless preserved the memory of an incursion of the Ammonites up the long ravines which lead from the Jordan valley to the highlands of Benjamin. SEE AMMONITE. Such a position is the modern Ain Yebrud, a little east of Jufna (Robinson, Researches, 3:79 note).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.