Hermes - Mercury, a Roman Christian ( Rom. 16:14).

Hermogenes - Mercury-born, at one time Paul's fellow-labourer in Asia Minor, who, however, afterwards abandoned him, along with one Phygellus, probably on account of the perils by which they were beset (2 Tim. 1:15).

Hermon - a peak, the eastern prolongation of the Anti-Lebanon range, reaching to the height of about 9,200 feet above the Mediterranean. It marks the north boundary of Palestine ( Deut. 3:8,Deut. 3:4:48; Josh. 11:3, Josh. 11:17; Josh 13:11; Josh 12:1), and is seen from a great distance. It is about 40 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It is called "the Hermonites" ( Ps. 42:6) because it has more than one summit. The Sidonians called it Sirion, and the Amorites Shenir ( Deut. 3:9; Cant. 4:8). It is also called Baal-hermon ( Judg. 3:3; 1 Chr. 5:23) and Sion ( Deut. 4:48). There is every probability that one of its three summits was the scene of the transfiguration (q.v.). The "dew of Hermon" is referred to (Ps. 89: 12). Its modern name is Jebel-esh-Sheikh, "the chief mountain." It is one of the most conspicuous mountains in Palestine or Syria. "In whatever part of Palestine the Israelite turned his eye northward, Hermon was there, terminating the view. From the plain along the coast, from the Jordan valley, from the heights of Moab and Gilead, from the plateau of Bashan, the pale, blue, snow-capped cone forms the one feature in the northern horizon."

Our Lord and his disciples climbed this "high mountain apart" one day, and remained on its summit all night, "weary after their long and toilsome ascent." During the night "he was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun." The next day they descended to Caesarea Philippi.

Hermonites, the - ( Ps. 42:6,Ps. 42:7) = "the Hermons", i.e., the three peaks or summits of Hermon, which are about a quarter of a mile apart.

Herod Agrippa I. - son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and grandson of Herod the Great. He was made tetrarch of the provinces formerly held by Lysanias II., and ultimately possessed the entire kingdom of his grandfather, Herod the Great, with the title of king. He put the apostle James the elder to death, and cast Peter into prison ( Luke 3:1; Acts 12:1-19). On the second day of a festival held in honour of the emperor Claudius, he appeared in the great theatre of Caesarea. "The king came in clothed in magnificent robes, of which silver was the costly brilliant material. It was early in the day, and the sun's rays fell on the king, so that the eyes of the beholders were dazzled with the brightness which surrounded him. Voices here and there from the crowd exclaimed that it was the apparition of something divine. And when he spoke and made an oration to them, they gave a shout, saying, 'It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.' But in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation an angel of God suddenly smote him. He was carried out of the theatre a dying man." He died (A.D. 44) of the same loathsome malady which slew his grandfather ( Acts. 12:21-23), in the fifty-fourth year of his age, having reigned four years as tetrarch and three as king over the whole of Palestine. After his death his kingdom came under the control of the prefect of Syria, and Palestine was now fully incorporated with the empire.

Herod Antipas - Herod's son by Malthace ( Matt. 14:1; Luke 3:1, Luke 3:19; Luke 9:7; Acts 13:1). (See ANTIPAS.)

Herod Archelaus - ( Matt. 2:22), the brother of Antipas (q.v.).

Herod Arippa II. - the son of Herod Agrippa I. and Cypros. The emperor Claudius made him tetrarch of the provinces of Philip and Lysanias, with the title of king ( Acts 25:13;Acts 26:2,Acts 25:7). He enlarged the city of Caesarea Philippi, and called it Neronias, in honour of Nero. It was before him and his sister that Paul made his defence at Caesarea ( Acts 25:12-27). He died at Rome A.D. 100, in the third year of the emperor Trajan.

Herodians - a Jewish political party who sympathized with ( Mark 3:6;Mark 12:13; Matt , 22:16; Luke 20:20) the Herodian rulers in their general policy of government, and in the social customs which they introduced from Rome. They were at one with the Sadducees in holding the duty of submission to Rome, and of supporting the Herods on the throne. (Comp. Mark 8:15; Matt. 16:6.)

Herodias - ( Matt. 14:3-11; Mark 6:17-28; Luke 3:19), the daughter of Aristobulus and Bernice. While residing at Rome with her husband Herod Philip I. and her daughter, Herod Antipas fell in with her during one of his journeys to that city. She consented to leave her husband and become his wife. Some time after, Herod met John the Baptist, who boldly declared the marriage to be unlawful. For this he was "cast into prison," in the castle probably of Machaerus (q.v.), and was there subsequently beheaded.

Herodion - a Christian at Rome whom Paul salutes and calls his "kinsman" ( Rom. 16:11).

Herod Philip I. - ( Mark 6:17), the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne, the daughter of Simon, the high priest. He is distinguished from another Philip called "the tetrarch." He lived at Rome as a private person with his wife Herodias and his daughter Salome.

Herod Philip II. - the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was "tetrarch" of Batanea, Iturea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis. He rebuilt the city of Caesarea Philippi, calling it by his own name to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the sea-coast which was the seat of the Roman government. He married Salome, the daughter of Herodias ( Matt. 16:13; Mark 8:27; Luke 3:1).

Herod the Great - ( Matt. 2:1-22; Luke 1:5; Acts 23:35), the son of Antipater, an Idumaean, and Cypros, an Arabian of noble descent. In the year B.C. 47 Julius Caesar made Antipater, a "wily Idumaean," procurator of Judea, who divided his territories between his four sons, Galilee falling to the lot of Herod, who was afterwards appointed tetrarch of Judea by Mark Antony (B.C. 40), and also king of Judea by the Roman senate.

He was of a stern and cruel disposition. "He was brutish and a stranger to all humanity." Alarmed by the tidings of one "born King of the Jews," he sent forth and "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under" ( Matt. 2:16). He was fond of splendour, and lavished great sums in rebuilding and adorning the cities of his empire. He rebuilt the city of Caesarea (q.v.) on the coast, and also the city of Samaria (q.v.), which he called Sebaste, in honour of Augustus. He restored the ruined temple of Jerusalem, a work which was begun B.C. 20, but was not finished till after Herod's death, probably not till about A.D. 50 ( John 2:20). After a troubled reign of thirty-seven years, he died at Jericho amid great agonies both of body and mind, B.C. 4, i.e., according to the common chronology, in the year in which Jesus was born.

After his death his kingdom was divided among three of his sons. Of these, Philip had the land east of Jordan, between Caesarea Philippi and Bethabara, Antipas had Galilee and Peraea, while Archelaus had Judea and Samaria.

Heron - ( Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18), ranked among the unclean birds. The Hebrew name is 'anaphah, and indicates that the bird so named is remarkable for its angry disposition. "The herons are wading-birds, peculiarly irritable, remarkable for their voracity, frequenting marshes and oozy rivers, and spread over the regions of the East." The Ardea russeta, or little golden egret, is the commonest species in Asia.

Heshbon - intelligence, a city ruled over by Sihon, king of the Amorites ( Josh. 3:10;Josh 13:17). It was taken by Moses ( Num. 21:23-26), and became afterwards a Levitical city ( Josh. 21:39) in the tribe of Reuben ( Num. 32:37). After the Exile it was taken possession of by the Moabites ( Isa. 15:4; Jer. 48:2, Jer. 48:34, Jer. 48:45). The ruins of this town are still seen about 20 miles east of Jordan from the north end of the Dead Sea. There are reservoirs in this district, which are probably the "fishpools" referred to in Cant. 7:4.

Heshmon - fatness, a town in the south of Judah ( Josh. 15:27).

Heth - dread, a descendant of Canaan, and the ancestor of the Hittites ( Gen. 10:18; Deut. 7:1), who dwelt in the vicinity of Hebron ( Gen. 23:3,Gen. 23:7). The Hittites were a Hamitic race. They are called "the sons of Heth" ( Gen. 23:3,Gen. 23:5,Gen. 23:7,Gen. 23:10,Gen. 23:16,Gen. 23:18,Gen. 23:20).

Hethlon - wrapped up, a place on the north border of Palestine. The "way of Hethlon" ( Ezek. 47:15;Ezek 48:1) is probably the pass at the end of Lebanon from the Mediterranean to the great plain of Hamath (q.v.), or the "entrance of Hamath."

Hezekiah - whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1.) Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this king is contained in 2 Kings 18:20, Isa. 36-39, and 2 Chr. 29-32. He is spoken of as a great and good king. In public life he followed the example of his great-granfather Uzziah. He set himself to abolish idolatry from his kingdom, and among other things which he did for this end, he destroyed the "brazen serpent," which had been removed to Jerusalem, and had become an object of idolatrous worship ( Num. 21:9). A great reformation was wrought in the kingdom of Judah in his day (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chr. 29:3-36).

On the death of Sargon and the accession of his son Sennacherib to the throne of Assyria, Hezekiah refused to pay the tribute which his father had paid, and "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not," but entered into a league with Egypt ( Isa. 30; 31; 36:6-9). This led to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16), who took forty cities, and besieged Jerusalem with mounds. Hezekiah yielded to the demands of the Assyrian king, and agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold 2 Kings 18:14).

But Sennacherib dealt treacherously with Hezekiah ( Isa. 33:1), and a second time within two years invaded his kingdom (2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chr. 32:9; Isa. 36). This invasion issued in the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Hezekiah prayed to God, and "that night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men." Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnant of his forces to Nineveh, where, seventeen years after, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer (2 Kings 19:37). (See SENNACHERIB.)

The narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chr. 32:24, Isa. 38:1. Various ambassadors came to congratulate him on his recovery, and among them Merodach-baladan, the viceroy of Babylon (2 Chr. 32:23; 2 Kings 20:12). He closed his days in peace and prosperity, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh. He was buried in the "chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David" (2 Chr. 32:27-33). He had "after him none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him" (2 Kings 18:5). (See ISAIAH.)

Hezion - vision, the father of Tabrimon, and grandfather of Ben-hadad, king of Syria (1 Kings 15:18).

Hezir - swine or strong. (1.) The head of the seventeenth course of the priests (1 Chr. 24:15). (2.) Neh. 10:20, one who sealed Nehemiah's covenant.

Hezro - a Carmelite, one of David's warriors (1 Chr. 11:37).

Hezron - enclosed. (1.) One of the sons of Reuben ( Gen. 46:9; Ex. 6:14). (2.) The older of the two sons of Pharez ( Gen. 46:12). (3.) A plain in the south of Judah, west of Kadesh-barnea ( Josh. 15:3).