It was also named Sion, the elevated" (y), towering over all its compeers (Deut. iv. 48). So now, at the present day, it is called Jebel esh-Sheikh "the chief mountain " - a

the remains of a small and very ancient temple. This is evidently one of those "high places," which the old inhabitants of Palestine, and the Jews frequently in imitation of them, set up upon every high mountain and upon every hill" (Deut. xii. 2; 2 K. xvii. 10, 11). In two passages of Scripture

name it well deserves; and Jebel eth-Thelj this mountain is called Baal-hermon (

(جبل الشيخ)

جبل) الثلج

(d), "snowy mountain," which 177, Judg. iii. 3; 1 Chr. v. 23); and the

ון

only reason that can be assigned for it is that Baal every man who sees it will say is peculiarly appro- was there worshipped. Jerome says of it, "dicipriate. When the whole country is parched with turque in vertice ejus insigne templum, quod ab the summer-sun, white lines of snow streak the ethnicis cultui habetur e regione Paneadis et Lihead of Hermon. This mountain was the great bani" reference must here be made to the buildlandmark of the Israelites. It was associated with ing whose ruins are still seen (Onom. s. v. Hermon). their northern border almost as intimately as the It is remarkable that Hermon was anciently ensea was with the western (see

"west "

in Ex. xxvii. 12, A. V. west; " Josh. viii. 9). They conquered all the land east of the Jordan, "from the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon" (Deut. iii. 8, iv. 48; Josh. xi. 17). Baal-gad, the border-city before Dan became historic, is described as "under Mount Hermon" (Josh. xiii. 5, xi. 17); and when the half-tribe of Manasseh conquered their whole allotted territory, they are said to have "increased from Bashan unto Baal-hermon and Senir, and unto Mount Hermon" (1 Chr. v. 23). In one passage Hermon would almost seem to be used to signify "north," as the word "sea () is for "the north and the south Thou hast | created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name (Ps. lxxxix. 12). The reason of this is obvious. From whatever part of Palestine the Israelite turned his eyes northward, Hermon was there, terminating the view. From the plain along the coast, from the mountains of Samaria, from the Jordan valley, from the heights of Moab and Gilead, from the plateau of Bashan, that pale-blue, snow-capped cone forms the one feature on the northern horizon. The "dew of Hermon " is once referred to in a passage which has long been considered a geographical puzzle —"As the dew of Hermon, the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion” (Ps. cxxxiii. 3). Zion (1) is probably used here for Sion (Niy), one of the old names of Hermon (Deut. iv. 48). a The snow on the summit of this mountain condenses the vapors that float during the summer in the higher regions | of the atmosphere, causing light clouds to hover around it, and abundant dew to descend on it, while the whole country elsewhere is parched, and the whole heaven elsewhere cloudless.

from each other.

Hermon has three summits, situated like the angles of a triangle, and about a quarter of a mile They do not differ much in elevation. This may account for the expression in Ps. xlii. 7 (6), “I will remember thee from the land

חֶרְמוֹנִים) of the Jordan and the Hermons

perhaps also for the three appellations in 1 Chr. v. 23. On one of the summits are curious and interesting ruins. Round a rock which forms the crest of the peak are the foundations of a rude circular wall, composed of massive stones; and within the circle is a large heap of hewn stones, surrounding

a * It is against this equivalence that the consonants are different (see above) and that the meanings are different (lofty: sunny, bright). Besides, to make the dew of Hermon fall upon itself renders what follows irrel

compassed by a circle of temples, all facing the summit. Can it be that this mountain was the great sanctuary of Baal, and that it was to the old Syrians what Jerusalem was to the Jews, and what Mekkah is to the Muslems? (See Handb. for Syr. and Pal. 454, 457; Reland, Pal. p. 323 ff.)

The height of Hermon has never been measured, though it has been often estimated. It is unquestionably the second mountain in Syria, ranking next to the summit of Lebanon near the Cedars, and only a few hundred feet lower than it. It It rises may safely be estimated at 10,000 feet. up an obtuse truncated cone, from 2000 to 3000 thus feet above the ridges that radiate from it having a more commanding aspect than any other mountain in Syria. The cone is entirely naked. A coating of disintegrated limestone covers the surface, rendering it smooth and bleak. The snow never disappears from its summit. In spring and early summer the top is entirely covered. As summer advances the snow gradually melts from the tops of the ridges, but remains in long glittering streaks in the ravines that radiate from the centre, looking in the distance like the white locks that scantily cover the head of old age. Years in Damascus, vol. i.)

(See Five

A tradition, originating apparently about the time of Jerome (Reland, p. 326), gave the name Hermon to the range of Jebel ed-Duhy near Tabor, the better to explain Ps. lxxxix. 12. The name still continues in the monasteries of Palestine, and has thus crept into books of travel. [GILBOA, J. L. P. note.]

* But few of the travellers in Syria have gone to the top of Hermon, and the view from it has not

been often described. We are indebted to Mr. Tristram for the following sketch (Land of Israel, p. 614, 2d ed.): —

"We were at last on Hermon, whose snowy head had been a sort of pole-star for the last six months. We had looked at him from Sidon, from Tyre, from Carmel, from Gerizim, from the hills about Jerusalem, from the Dead Sea, from Gilead, and from Nebo; and now we were looking down on them all, as they stood out from the embossed map that lay spread at our feet. The only drawback was a light fleecy cloud which stretched from Carmel's top all along the Lebanon, till it rested upon Jebel Sunnin, close to Baal-bec. But it lifted sufficiently

to give us a peep of the Mediterranean in three places, and amongst them of Tyre. There was a haze, too, over the Ghor, so that we could only see as far as Jebel Ajlûn and Gilead; but Lakes Huleh and Gennesaret, sunk in the depths beneath us, and reflecting the sunlight, were magnificent. We could scarcely realize that at one glance we were taking in the whole of the land through which, for more than six months, we had been incessantly wandering. Not less striking were the views to the north and east, with the head waters of the Awaj (Pharpar) rising beneath us, and the Barada (Abana), in the far distance, both rivers marking the courses of their fertilizing streams by the deep green lines of verdure, till the eye rested on the brightness of Damascus, and then turned up the wide opening of Cole-Syria, until shut in by Leb

anon.

Jesus was journeying southward during these days;
but, on the contrary, having stated just before that
Jesus came into "the parts (Matt. xvi. 13) or
the villages" (Mark viii. 27) of Cæsarea Philippi,
they leave us to understand that he preached dur-
ing the time mentioned, in that region, and then
came to the mountain there on which he was trans-
figured. [TABOR.]
H.

* HERMON, DEW OF. The dew on this
mountain is proverbially excellent and abundant
(see Ps. cxxxiii. 3). "More copious dew," says Tris-
tram (Land of Israel, p. 608 f. 2d ed.), “we never
experienced than that on Hermon.
was drenched with it, and the tents were small pro-
Everything
tection. The under sides of our macintosh sheets
were in water, our guns were rusted, dew-drops
were hanging everywhere.. The hot air in
the daytime comes streaming up the Ghor from the
Huleh, while Hermon arrests all the moisture, and

"A ruined temple of Baal, constructed of squared stones arranged nearly in a circle, crowns the high-deposits it congealed at nights." As Mr. Porter est of the three peaks of Hermon, all very close together. We spent a great part of the day on the summit, but were before long painfully affected by the rarity of the atmosphere. The sun had sunk behind Lebanon before we descended to our tents, but long after we had lost him he continued to paint and gild Hermon with a beautiful mingling of Alpine and desert hues.”

Mr. Porter, author of Five Years in Damascus, ascended Hermon in 1852. For an extended account of the incidents and results of the exploration, see Bibl. Sacra, xi. 41–56. See the notices, also, in Mr. Porter's Handbook, ii. 453 ff. Thomson (Land and Book, ii. 438) speaks of his surprise at finding that from the shores of the Dead Sea he had a distinct view of "Mount Hermon towering to the sky far, far up the Ghor to the north." It was a new evidence, he adds, that Moses also could have seen Hermon (Deut. xxxiv. 1 ff.) from the mountains of Moab [NEBO, Amer. ed.].

states, "one of its hills is appropriately called Tell
Abu Nedy, i. e. Father of the Dew,' for the clouds
seem to cling with peculiar fondness round its
wooded top and the little Wely of Sheikh Abu
Nedy, which crowns it"
Van de Velde (Syr. and Pal. i. 126) testifies to
(Handbook, ii. 463).
this peculiarity of Hermon.

It has perplexed commentators not a little to explain how the Psalmist (cxxxiii. 3) could speak of the dew of Hermon in the north of Palestine as falling on Zion in Jerusalem. The A. V. does not show the difficulty; for the words "and the dew" being interpolated between the clauses, the dew of Hermon appears there as locally different from that which descended on Mount Zion. But the Hebrew sentence will not bear that construction (see Hupfeld, Die Psalmen, iv. 320). Nor, where the places are so far apart from each other, can we think of the dew as carried in the atmosphere from one place to the other. Hupfeld (iv. 322) suggests that Sirion or Shirion, the Sidonian name of Hermon, perhaps "as the dew of Hermon signifies a "breast-plate," or "coat of mail;" and mula of blessing (comp. the curse on Gilboa, 2 Sam. may be a forif (as assumed above), it be derived from i. 21), and as applied here may represent Zion as and natural, in the highest degree. realizing the idea of that blessing, both spiritual Böttcher (Aehrenlese zum A. T., p. 58) assumes an appel-· lative sense of, i. e. dew (not of any particular mountain of that name), but of lofty heights generally, which would include Zion. Hengstenberg's explanation is not essentially different from this (Die Psalmen, iv. 83), except that with him the generalized idea would be Hermon-dew, instead of Dew of Hermons.

T T

"to glitter," "a
a it refers, naturally, not to any sup-
posed resemblance of figure or shape, but to the
shining appearance of that piece of armor. Her-
mon answers remarkably to that description. As
seen at a distance through the transparent atmos-
phere, with the snow on its summit and stretching
in long lines down its declivities, it glows and
sparkles under the rays of the sun as if robed in a
vesture of silver.

It is altogether probable that the Saviour's transfiguration took place on some one of the heights

H.

W. A. W.

of Hermon. The Evangelists relate the occurrence HERʼMONITES, THE (: 'Epin connection with the Saviour's visit to Cæsarea μovicíμ: Hermonüim) [in the A. V.]. Properly Philippi, which was in that neighborhood. Hence the "Hermons," with reference to the three [or also the healing of the lunatic boy (Luke ix. 37) two?] summits of Mount Hermon (Ps. xlii. 6 [7]). took place at the foot of Hermon. Dean Alford [HERMON, p. 1047.] assumes (Greek Test. i. 168) that Jesus had been journeying southward from Cæsarea Philippi during the six or eight days which immediately preceded the transfiguration, and hence infers that the high mountain which he ascended must be sought near Capernaum. But that is not the more obvious view. Neither of the Evangelists says that

* HER MONS (according to the Hebrew), Ps. xlii. 7 (6). Only one mountain is known in the Bible as Hermon; the plural name refers, no doubt, to the different summits for which this was noted. [HERMON.] See also Rob. Phys. Geogr. p. 347.

H. HER'OD ('Hpwdns, i. e. Hero'des). THE HERODIAN FAMILY. The history of the Hero

a * So Gesenius in Hoffmann's ed. 1847 ; but accord-dian family presents one side of the last development of the Jewish nation. The evils which had ing to Dietrich and Fürst, from, to weave to- existed in the hierarchy which grew up after the gether, fasten, as in making a shield. Return, found an unexpected embodiment in the

TT

H.

The members of the Herodian family who are mentioned in the N. T. are distinguished by capitals.

Josephus is the one great authority for the history of the Herodian family. The scanty notices which occur in Hebrew and classic writers throw very little additional light upon the events which he narrates. Of modern writers Ewald has treated the whole subject with the widest and clearest view. Jost in his several works has added to the records of Josephus gleanings from later Jewish writers. Where the original sources are so accessible, monographs are of little use. The following are quoted by Winer: Noldii Hist. Idumæu Franeq. Herodis M., 1660; E. Spanhemii Stemma which are reprinted in Havercamp's Josephus (ii. 331 ff.; 402 ff.).

tyranny of a foreign usurper. Religion was adopted | mary of his statements. as a policy; and the Hellenizing designs of Antiochus Epiphanes were carried out, at least in their spirit, by men who professed to observe the Law. Side by side with the spiritual "kingdom of God," proclaimed by John the Baptist, and founded by the Lord, a kingdom of the world was established, which in its external splendor recalled the traditional magnificence of Solomon. The simultaneous realization of the two principles, national and spiritual, which had long variously influenced the Jews, in the establishment of a dynasty and a church, is a fact pregnant with instruction. In the fullness of time a descendant of Esau established a false counterpart of the promised glories of Messiah. Various accounts are given of the ancestry of the Herods; but neglecting the exaggerated statements of friends and enemies," it seems certain that they I. HEROD THE GREAT ('Hpwdns) was the secwere of Idumæan descent (Jos. Ant. xiv. 1, 3), a ond son of Antipater, who was appointed procurator fact which is indicated by the forms of some of the of Judæa by Julius Cæsar, B. C. 47, and Cypros, names which were retained in the family (Ewald, an Arabian of noble descent (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 7, Geschichte, iv. 477, note). But though aliens by § 3). At the time of his father's elevation, though race, the Herods were Jews in faith. The Idu-only fifteen years old, he received the government mæans had been conquered and brought over to of Galilee (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 9, § 2), and shortly Judaism by John Hyrcanus (B. C. 130, Jos. Ant. afterwards that of Cole-Syria. When Antony xiii. 9, § 1); and from the time of their conversion came to Syria, B. C. 41, he appointed Herod and they remained constant to their new religion, look- his elder brother Phasael tetrarchs of Judæa (Joing upon Jerusalem as their mother city and claim- seph. Ant. xiv. 13, § 1). Herod was forced to ing for themselves the name of Jews (Joseph. Ant. abandon Judæa next year by an invasion of the xx. 7, §7; B. J. i. 10, § 4, iv. 4, § 4). Parthians, who supported the claims of Antigonus, The general policy of the whole Herodian family, the representative of the Asmonæan dynasty, and though modified by the personal characteristics of fled to Rome (B. c. 40). At Rome he was well the successive rulers, was the same. It centred in received by Antony and Octavian, and was apthe endeavor to found a great and independent pointed by the senate king of Judæa to the exclukingdom, in which the power of Judaism should sion of the Hasmonean line (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 14, subserve to the consolidation of a state. The pro- 4; App. Bell. C. 39). In the course of a few $ tection of Rome was in the first instance a neces- years, by the help of the Romans, he took Jerusalem sity, but the designs of Herod I. and Agrippa I. (B. C. 37), and completely established his authority point to an independent eastern empire as their throughout his dominions. An expedition which end, and not to a mere subject monarchy. Such a he was forced to make against Arabia saved him consummation of the Jewish hopes seems to have from taking an active part in the civil war, though found some measure of acceptance at first [HE- he was devoted to the cause of Antony. After the RODIANS]; and by a natural reaction the temporal battle of Actium he visited Octavian at Rhodes, dominion of the Herods opened the way to the and his noble bearing won for him the favor of the destruction of the Jewish nationality. The religion conqueror, who confirmed him in the possession of which was degraded into the instrument of unscru- the kingdom, B. c. 31, and in the next year inpulous ambition lost its power to quicken a united creased it by the addition of several important people. The high-priests were appointed and de- cities (Joseph. Ant. xv. 10, § 1 ff.), and afterwards posed by Herod I. and his successors with such a gave him the province of Trachonitis and the disreckless disregard for the character of their office trict of Paneas (Joseph. Ant. 1. c.). The remainder (Jost, Gesch. d. Judenthums, i. 322, 325, 421), of the reign of Herod was undisturbed by external that the office itself was deprived of its sacred dig- troubles, but his domestic life was embittered by nity (comp. Acts xxiii. 2 ff.; Jost, 430, &c.). The an almost uninterrupted series of injuries and cruel nation was divided, and amidst the conflict of sects acts of vengeance. Hyrcanus, the grandfather of a universal faith arose, which more than fulfilled his wife Mariamne, was put to death shortly before the nobler hopes that found no satisfaction in the his visit to Augustus. Mariamne herself, to whom treacherous grandeur of a court. he was passionately devoted, was next sacrificed to his jealousy. One execution followed another, till at last, in B. C. 6, he was persuaded to put to death the two sons of Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus, in whom the chief hope of the people lay. Two years afterwards he condemned to death An

The family relations of the Herods are singularly complicated from the frequent recurrence of the same names, and the several accounts of Josephus are not consistent in every detail. The following table, however, seems to offer a satisfactory sum

a The Jewish partisans of Herod (Nicolaus Damas- a slave attached to the service of a temple of Apollo at cenus, ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 1, 3) sought to raise him to Ascalon, who was taken prisoner by Idumæan robbers, the dignity of a descent from one of the noble fami- and kept by them, as his father could not pay his ranlies which returned from Babylon; and, on the other som. The locality (cf. Philo, Leg. ad Caium, § 30) hand, early Christian writers represented his origin as no less than the office, was calculated to fix a heavy utterly mean and servile. Africanus has preserved a reproach upon the name (cf. Routh, ad loc.). This tradition (Routh, Rel!. Sacr. ii. p. 235), on the authority story is repeated with great inaccuracy by Epiphanius of "the natural kinsmen of the Saviour," which makes | (Hær. xx.). Antipater, the father of Herod, the son of one Herod,

(4) Herod the King, Matt. ii. 1 ff.; Luke i. 5.

(15) Herod the Tetrarch, Matt. xiv. 1; Luke iii. 1, 19, ix. 7. King Herod, Mark vi. 14.

(27) Herod the King, Acts xii. 1.

(36) King Agrippa, Acts xxv. 13.

tipater, his eldest son, who had been their most active accuser, and the order for his execution was among the last acts of Herod's life, for he died himself five days after the death of his son, B. C. 4, in the same year which marks the true date of the Nativity. [JESUS CHRIST.]

legends; and he introduced heathen games within the walls of Jerusalem (Jos. Ant. xv. 8, § 1). He displayed ostentatiously his favor towards foreigners (Jos. Ant. xvi. 5, § 3), and oppressed the old Jewish aristocracy (Jos. Ant. xv. 1, § 1). The later Jewish traditions describe him as successively the servant of the Hasmoneans and the Romans, and relate that one Rabbin only survived the persecution which he directed against them, purchasing his life by the loss of sight (Jost, i. 319, &c.).

These terrible acts of bloodshed which Herod perpetrated in his own family were accompanied by others among his subjects equally terrible, from the numbers who fell victims to them. The infirmities of his later years exasperated him to yet greater While Herod alienated in this manner the affeccruelty; and, according to the well-known story, tions of the Jews by his cruelty and disregard for he ordered the nobles whom he had called to him the Law, he adorned Jerusalem with many splendid in his last moments to be executed immediately monuments of his taste and magnificence. The after his decease, that so at least his death might Temple, which he rebuilt with scrupulous care, so be attended by universal mourning (Joseph. Ant. | that it might seem to be a restoration of the old xvii. 7, § 5). It was at the time of this fatal ill- one rather than a new building (Jos. Ant. xv. § 11), ness that he must have caused the slaughter of the was the greatest of these works. The restoration infants at Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 16-18), and from was begun B. C. 20, and the Temple itself was comthe comparative insignificance of the murder of a pleted in a year and a half (Jos. Ant. xv. 11, § 6). few young children in an unimportant village when The surrounding buildings occupied eight years contrasted with the deeds which he carried out or more (Jos. Ant. xv. 11, § 5). But fresh additions designed, it is not surprising that Josephus has were constantly made in succeeding years, so that passed it over in silence. The number of children at the time of the Lord's visit to Jerusalem at the in Bethlehem and "all the borders thereof" (ev beginning of His ministry, it was said that the πâσɩ Toîs ópíois) may be estimated at about ten Temple was "built (@kodoμńon) in forty and six or twelve; a and the language of the Evangelist | years (John ii. 20), a phrase which expresses the leaves in complete uncertainty the method in which whole period from the commencement of Herod's the deed was effected (àπoσteínas åveîλev). The work to the completion of the latest addition then scene of open and undisguised violence which has made, for the final completion of the whole buildbeen consecrated by Christian art is wholly at va- ing is placed by Josephus (Ant. xx. 8, § 7, hôn dè riance with what may be supposed to have been the τότε καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐτετέλεστο) in the time of historic reality. At a later time the murder of the Herod Agrippa II. (c. a. D. 50). children seems to have been connected with the death of Antipater. Thus, according to the anecdote preserved by Macrobius (c. A. D. 410), “ Augustus, cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes, Rex Judæorum, intra bimatum (Matt. ii. 16; ib. Vulg. a bimatu et infra) jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait: Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium" (Macrob. Sat. ii. 4). But Josephus has preserved two very remarkable references to a massacre which Herod caused to be made shortly before his death, which may throw an additional light upon the history. In this it is said that Herod did not spare "those who seemed most dear to him (Ant. xvi. 11, § 7), but "slew all those of his own family who sided with the Pharisees (¿ Papioaîos)" in refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Roman emperor, while they looked forward to a change in the royal line (Joseph. Ant. xvii. 2, § 6; cf. Lardner, Credibility, etc., i. 278 ff., 332 f., 349 f.). How far this event have been directly connected with the murder may at Bethlehem it is impossible to say, from the obscurity of the details, but its occasion and character throw a great light upon St. Matthew's nar

rative.

In dealing with the religious feelings or prejudices of the Jews, Herod showed as great contempt for public opinion as in the execution of his personal vengeance. He signalized his elevation to the throne by offerings to the Capitoline Jupiter (Jost, Gesch. d. Judenthums, i. 318), and surrounded his person by foreign mercenaries, some of whom had been formerly in the service of Cleopatra (Jos. Ant. xv. 7, § 3; xvii. 1, § 1; 8, § 3). His coins and those of his successors bore only Greek

Yet even this splendid work was not likely to mislead the Jews as to the real spirit of the king. While he rebuilt the Temple at Jerusalem, he rebuilt also the Temple at Samaria (Jos. Ant. xv. 8, § 5), and made provision in his new city Cæsarea for the celebration of heathen worship (Jos. Ant. xv. 9, § 5); and it has been supposed (Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. i. 323) that the rebuilding of the Temple furnished him with the opportunity of destroying the authentic collection of genealogies which was of the highest importance to the priestly families. Herod, as appears from his public designs, affected the dignity of a second Solomon, but he joined the license of that monarch to his magnificence; and it was said that the monument which he raised over the royal tombs was due to the fear which seized him after a sacrilegious attempt to rob them of secret treasures (Jos. Ant. xvi. 7, § 1).

It is, perhaps, difficult to see in the character of Herod any of the true elements of greatness. Some have even supposed that the title the great

is a mistranslation for the elder (N7, Jost, i. 319, note; ¿ μéyas, Ewald, Gesch. iv. 473, &c.); and yet on the other hand he seems to have possessed the good qualities of our own Henry VIII. with his vices. He maintained peace at home during a long reign by the vigor and timely generosity of his administration. Abroad he conciliated the good-will of the Romans under circumstances of unusual difficulty. His ostentatious display and even his arbitrary tyranny was calculated to inspire Orientals with awe. Bold and yet prudent, oppressive and yet profuse, he had many of the characteristics which make a popular hero; and the title

a The language of St. Matthew offers an instructive èv Bŋodeèμ ékédevσev άvaiρeðñvai. Cf. Orig. c. Cels. contrast to that of Justin M. (Dial. c. Tryph. 78): i. p. 47, ed. Spenc. ò dè 'Hpwdns åveîde návra tà ẻv ὁ Ἡρώδης . . . πάντας ἁπλῶς τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς Βηθλεὲμ καὶ τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτῆς παιδία