The passages in which 'hill' stands for ii may next be considered, in is a much more general term than .t^'zj : it may be applied to what we should call a mountain-range, to a simple ' moun- tain,' and also to a block of elevated country (as the central part of Palestine). It thus no doubt in particular cases may corresjiond to what we should term a ' hill ' ; but it lacks the definite and distinct characteristics of the n^ns. Its being represented by ' hill ' in AV is sometimes a source of confusion. Thus the 'hill' of Ex 24-' is the 'mount' of yv 12. IS. 15 etc. ; the ' hill ' of Nu 14"- «, Dt !"• " is the 'mountain' of Nu 14", Dt 1"; IK 11' the ' hill ' in front of Jerusalem is the ' mount ' of Olives ; the ' hill ' of Zion in Ps 2", and the ' holy hill ' of 3* 15' 43' 99» (cf. 24' 68'«''), is the ' mount ' Zion of other passages. Other passages in which ' mount ' or ' mountain ' would have been better than ' hill' are Gn 7'^ (see v.")), Dt 8' 11", Jos 15" 18"-'«, Jg 2' 16', 1 S 25=" 26'', 2S 13" 16" 21»,
1 K 16='- "■*■ " (of Samaria, see Am 4' 6' A V), 20='- =« 22", 2 K P 42' (see v.^), Ps 18' 68'»- '«• (of the gi-eat range of Jebel yauran) SO" ^b* 97' 98' 104"- ■'^ "• '» 121', Lk 9^' (see v.=*). In the great majority of these passages the correction has been made in RV.
htv, -which is represented by ' hill ' in RV of
2 K S"-*, Is 32'*, Mic 4', was also (with the art.) the name of the bulging side of Zion on the S. of the Roj-al Palace (see Ophel) : this is probably alluded to in Is 32'*, Mic 4* ; in 2 K 5** the name is applied to some similarly shaped spot in Samaria (cf. Mesha's Inscr. 1. 22). — ' Hill is never, it may be added, to be understood in RV in the common English sense of ^n ascent, and only twice in AV
(1 S 9", 2 S 16') : the Heb. for this is nh]ip (' going uji,' or ' ascent').
Hill-country occurs in AV 4 times, Jos 13' 21" (for -n), and Lk l"*-" (for r, ipetvii [often in L.\X for inn]) ; also Jth 1« 2*' 4' 5' 6'- ". In RV the terra has been employed much more frequently. As was remarked above, the Hob. -iriis used not only of a single mouut-ain, and of a range of mountains, but al.so often of a mountainoits tract 0/ country, esp. the elevated mountain tract, which forms, as it were, the backboneof Palestine, gradually rising from the plain of Jezreel on the N., sloping down on the E. and \V. to the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively, and terminating (a)iproximatelv) in the S. in the neighbourhood of Reersheba. In AV, in, in this application, ia usually rendered ' mountain(s) ' or ' mount,'— in neither case very suitably, ' mount ' especially (as in ' Mount Ephraim,' 1 S 1' and frequently) suggest- ing a single eminence (as Mount Ararat, Mount Etna, Mount Zion, etc.), and not a tract of moun- tainous country. Accordiu'dy, ' hill-country,' the phra-se already u.sed in the AV of Jos 13' 21", has in RV been geueiallv substituted in all these cases. Thus Dt V- "■•-■« • the" hill-country of the Amorites," and 1' ' the hill-country ' (both of the high centraj ground of Cana.an) : so Jos 9' 10«- " 11'- " 12«. Two parts of this ' hill-countrj-,' which are frequently particularized, are the 'hill-country' of Ephraim (Jos 17"-i«-'8 igw 20' 2P' 24»»-'', Jg 3-'' 4» 7** 10' 171.8 182. w IS V 9* U'^, 2S 20-', 1 K 4' 12-", 2 K 5^ 19'- "■ ", 2 Ch 13' 15' 19* : in Jer 4" 31' 50'" 'the hills of Ephraim'); and the ' hiU-country ' of Judah (Jos 11=' 20' 21", 2 Ch 27*, Lk l" ; cf. v."*, Jos 18'2, Jg 1»- '», 1 S 23'*), the latter forming a clearly defined part of the territory of Judah (ojjp. to the ' fowland,' the ' Negeb,' and the ' wilderness '), the cities of which are enumerated in Jos 15*"*'(cf. Jer 32** 33" 'the cities of the hill-country'; and see Judah). We also have the 'hill-country' of Naphtali (Jos 20'), as well as of the Ammonite territory (Dt 2"), and of Gilead (3'=), on the E. of Jordan. G. A. Smith (HGIIL 53) objects to the rendering ' hill-country,' on the ground that the Central Range of Palestine was recognized by the Hebrews as JForming a single block, which they called accordingly not by a collective name but by a singular name, the mountain. The observa- tion is, no doubt, correct ; but ' the mountain ' would in English have been so strongly suggestive of a single eminence that it could hardly be considered a preferable rendering.
S. R. DlilVER.
HILLEL (SSi 'he hath praised'; cf. the name in New Heb. of the well-known Rabbi Hillel). — The father of the judge Abdon, of Piratbon in Ephraim (Jg 12"- ").