Chephirah

Chephirah ("village" or "hamlet") was one of the four Hivite cities — alongside Gibeon, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim — whose inhabitants disguised themselves as travelers from a distant land to trick Joshua into a sworn peace treaty (Joshua 9:17). When the deception was discovered, Joshua honored the oath but bound them as woodcutters and water-carriers for the tabernacle. After the conquest, Chephirah was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:26). Centuries later, returnees from the Babylonian exile included 743 men from "Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth" (Ezra 2:25, Nehemiah 7:29) — the old Hivite alliance reconstituted as Persian-period Jewish villages. Generally identified with Khirbet el-Kefireh on the western edge of the Benjamin plateau.