With regard to perso7ial property, it may be presumed that the owner had some authority over it, at all events during his life-time. The admission of a slave to a por- tion of the inheritance with the sons (Prov. xvii, 2) prolj- ably applies only to the personalty. A presentation of half the personalty formed the marriage portion of To- bit's wife (Tob. viii, 21). A distribution of goods during the father's life-time is implied in Luke xv, 11-13: a distinction may be noted between ovaia, a general terra applicable to personalty, and K\r)povojjiia, the landed property, which could only be divided after the father's death (Luke xii, 13).
There is a striking resemblance between the Hebrew and Athenian customs of heirship, particidarly as regards heiresses (iniK\r]poC),w\\o were, in both nations, bound to marry their nearest relation : the property did not vest in the husband even for his life-time, but devolved upon the son of the heiress as soon as he was of age, who also bore the name, not of his father, but of his ma- ternal grandfather. The object in both countries was the same, viz. to preserve the name and property of ev- ery family (Smith, Diet, of Class. A nt. s. v. Epiclerus).— Smith, s. v. See Inhp:kitance.
In Col. i, 15, Christ is called " the first-born of every creature," i. e. " the heir of the whole creation," as in Heb. i, 2 he is called the "heir of all things." Believers
HELAH
163
HELEKITE
are called " heirs of the promise," " of righteousness," " of the kingdom," " of the world," " of God," "joint heirs" •with Christ, inasmuch as they are partakers of the bless- ings which God bestows upon his children, impljdng ad- mission to the kingdom of heaven and its privileges (Gal. iii, 29 ; Heb. vi, 17 ; xi, 7 ; Jas. ii, 5 ; Kom. iv, 13 ; viii, 17), and finally possession of the heavenly inherit- ance (John xvii, 22-24 ; Rev. iii, 22). See Adoption. He'lah (Heb. Chdah', tixbn, rust, as in Ezek. xxiv, G ; Sept. 'Wac'i v. r. 'Awc^a), one of the two wives of Ashur (a descendant of Judah), by whom she had three sons (1 Chron. iv, 5, 7). B.C. prob. cir. 1612.
Helali Codex of the O. T. See Manuscripts. He'lam (Hub. Cheylam', ^h'^'H, j^lace of abundance, 2 Sam. X, 10; but in ver. 17, Chelani', cbxtl [with he "directive," tn^bxil, Josephus Xa'Kafia], for which the margin prefers DNbll; Sept. Ai'Xa/x, Vulgate Helam), a place " beyond the river" (i. e. either east of the Jordan or west of the Euphrates, although Josephus, ^1??^ vii, 6, 3, understands it to mean east of the Euphrates), where Uavid gained a victory over the combined forces of the Syrians under Hadadezer, apparently between Damas- cus and the country of the Ammonites. Ewald {Isr. Gesch. ii, C20) compares the Alamatha ('AX«/inSa) of rtolemy (v, 15, 25), on the west bank of the Euplirates, near Nicephorium. See David.
Hel'bah {Weh.Chelbah', n^hu, fatness; Sept.'EX- /3a V. r. X(i3c(i and S^fciia), a town in the tribe of Asher, from which the Canaanites were not expelled, mentioned between Achzib and Aphik (Judg. i, 31); but not (as Gesenius suggests) identical with Ahlab, wliich is also mentioned in the same verse. Perhaps it ■was situated in some fertile tract (as the names imply) in the valley of the Kishon, possibly at Haifa.
Hel'bon (Ileb. Chelbon', "psbn, /(/f, i. e. fertile; Sept. XiXjSiov v. r. XejSpdjv), a name which occurs only in Ezek. xxvii, 18, where " the wine of Helbon" is named among the commodities brought from Damascus to the great market of Tyre. The Syriac, Symmachus, the Chaldee, and Yulgate, all regard the word as an appel- lative descriptive of the quality of the wine as jnn/^ue vinnm or rinum diilce cocium. But it is better to accept the indication of the Sept., which, by giving the proper name XtXjSiov, must be supposed to have had in view a place, v.-liich has hence generally been inferred to be the same with that old city of Syria that appears under the form of Chalijbon (XnXvf^wv) in Ptolemy (Geoff.v, 15) and Strabo (xv, 505). The latter author mentions this Chalybon as a place famous for wine ; and in describing the luxury of the kings of Persia, he says they would have wheat brought from Assos in ^olia, Chalybonian wine out of Syria, and water from the Euteus (the river Ulai of Dan. viii, 2), which was the lightest of any. Both Hesychius and Plutarch ( Vif. A lex. ii) speak of this famous wine. It has generally been thought that the name was derived from Chalybon, where it was sup- posed the wine was produced. But is it not strange that Damascus should be represented as supplying the wine of Helbon to the marts of Tyre ? Why would not the native merchants themselves carrj' it thither? A passage which Bochart quotes from Athenreus (i, 51) throws light on this point : " The king of the Persians drank Chalybonian Mine alone ; which, says Poseidoni- us, was also produced in Damascus" (Bochart, 0pp. ii, 486). ^yQ are thus led, both by the statement of Eze- kicl and by tliat of Poseidonius, who was himself a na- tive of Syria, to look for a Helbon or Chalybon at or near Damascus. Seleucus Nicator is said to have changed the name to Beroea (Xiceph. Callist. xiv, 39) ; but the old name, as we see from Ptolemy, was not for- gotten, and on the capture of the city by the Ai-abs in the 7th century it was again resumed (Schultens, Index Geoff r. in vitam Saladini, s. v. Halebum). — Kitto. The city referred to has usually been identified with the modem Aleppo, a large city of Syria, called Ilakb by