Tiphsah, a city on the Euphrates River, marking the extent of Solomon's kingdom (1Kgs. 4:24).
Tiphsah is mentioned in 1Ki.4.24 as one of the boundary points of Solomon's kingdom, which extended from Tiphsah to Gaza. The city was located on the western bank of the Euphrates River, in the region of northern Syria or southern Turkey. Its inclusion in the description of Solomon's realm demonstrates the vast extent of his dominion and influence during the height of his reign. Tiphsah's strategic position on the Euphrates made it an important trade and military center, allowing Solomon to control the major trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Levant. The city's location also underscores the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that his descendants would possess the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (Gen. 15:18).
Approximate location: 35.848, 38.732 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
Passing over; ford, one of the boundaries of Solomon’s dominions (1 Kings 4:24), probably “Thapsacus, a great and wealthy town on the western bank of the Euphrates,” about 100 miles north-east of Tadmor. All the land traffic between the east and the west passed through it. Menahem undertook an expedition against this city, and “smote Tiphsah and all that were therein” (2 Kings 15:16). This expedition implied a march of some 300 miles from Tirzah if by way of Tadmor, and about 400 if by way of Aleppo; and its success showed the strength of the Israelite kingdom, for it was practically a defiance to Assyria. Conder, however, identifies this place with Khurbet Tafsah, some 6 miles west of Shechem.
(ford) is mentioned in (1 Kings 4:24) as the limit of Solomon’s empire toward the Euphrates and in (2 Kings 15:16) it is said to have been attacked by Menahemi. It was known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of Thapsacus, and was the point where it was usual to cross the Euphrates. Thapsacus has been generally placed at the modern Deir ; but the Euphrates expedition proved that there is no ford at Deir, and that the only ford in this part of the course of the Euphrates is at Suriyeh, 45 miles below Balis, and 165 above Deir . This, then, must have been the position of Thapsacus.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H8607
For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates—over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all sides.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.