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Heron – Hethlon

Page 92 of 259

Heron

The Heb. word ‘anSpMh designates an unclean bird (. ). not otheiwise mentioned in the Bible, but sufficiently well known to be taken as a type of a class. The occurrence of this name immediately after stork, and followed by the expression’ after her kind,’ makes it probable that the EV rendering is correct. The heron belongs to the same group as the stork, and no fewer than six species of the genus Ardea alone are found in Palestine.

Heshbon

Heshbon is the modem Hesban, finely situated close to the edge of the great plateau of Eastern Palestine. The extensive ruins, mainly of Roman times, lie on two hills connected by a saddle. The site commands views, E. and S., of rolling country; N., of hills, including e.g. that on which el-‘Al (Elealeh) lies; and W., in the distance, of the hills of Judah, and nearer, through a gap in the near hills, of the Jordan valley, which lies some 4000 feet below, the river itself being barely 20 miles distant. Allotted to Reuben (). Heshbon appears in the OT most frequently as being, or having been, the capital of Sihon (wh. see), king of the Amorites ( and often), or, like many other towns in this neighbourhood, in the actual possession of the Moabites ( f.: , f.), to whom, according to , it had belonged before Sihon captured it. , which appears to make Heshbon an Amorite city, is probably corrupt (cf . Driver, Book of the Prophet Jeremiah). According to Josephus (Ant. xiii. xv. 4), it was in the hands of the Jews in the time of Alexander JannEeus (b.c. 104-78). The pools in Heshbon, mentioned in , were perhaps pools near the spring which rises 600 feet below the city, and in the neighbourhood of which are traces of ancient conduits.

G. B. Gray.

Heshmon

An unknown town in the extreme south of Judah ().

Heth

A ‘son’ of Canaan, (J)= l Ch . The wives of Esau are called in (R) ‘daughters of Heth’; and in ff. (all P) ‘children of Heth,’ i.e. Hittites, are located at Mamre. See, further, HiTTITES.

Hethlon

A place mentioned by Ezekiel ( 48’) as situated on the ideal northern boundary of Israel. Furrer identifies it with the present Heitela, N.E. of Tripoli; and von Kasteren and others favour ‘Adlun, north of the mouth of the Kasimiyyeh.

W. M. Nesbit.

James Hastings (ed.), with John A. Selbie and John C. Lambert, Dictionary of the Bible (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909). Public domain. Scan of Cornell University Library’s copy from the Internet Archive; text from its OCR, with the Bible references read again from the page images.