Heleph

Heleph was a boundary point on the western border of the tribe of Naphtali's inheritance, named as the starting point of the border description that runs from Heleph through Allon-bezaanannim and Adami-nekeb and Jabneel to the Jordan (Joshua 19:33). The site is generally identified with Khirbet Arbathah or Khirbet Arbatha-el-Helf in lower Galilee, near the Hittin plateau west of the Sea of Galilee. As one of the western waypoints of Naphtali's frontier, Heleph would have marked the transition from the lower hill country to the more rugged upper Galilee. The boundary description in Joshua 19:33 is unusual for including the detail "from the oak in Zaanannim" — a noteworthy tree that served as a landmark known to all the surrounding tribes.