Herkath-Iiaz'zurim (Heb. Chelkath' hats-Tsurim' , U^"}'3.'r\~T\:'?n, 2^lot of the rocks), a designation of the plain just below the pool of Gibeon, on the east, acquired from the deadly combat between twelve of Ishbosheth's men and as many of David's, -which formed a prelude to the general engagement (2 Sam. ii, 1(5). See Gireox. As to the name, "Ewald approves the reading which the Sept. seem to have followed (jufpi'c riuv iirifiovXiDV, ap- parently from their reading Qi"! SJJl), as that which alone gives a suitable meaning to the name (Gesch. Tsi: ii.575, note 1). Gesenius renders by ' the field of swords,' which can hardly be admitted; for, though 'n^U is used in the sense of an ' edge,' it is never used simply for ' sword.' Fiirst gives Felsenkahlheit, ' rock - smoothness,' as the meaning, the place being smooth and level as a surface of rock. Aquila gives KXijpog twv arepewv, and the Yulg.Affer rohustorum, taking ^^l^ in a figurative sense, of which, however, there is no other instance" (Kitto).
Helki'as (XfX/ci'ac), a still different Greek form (1 Esd. i, 8) of the name of the high-priest Hilkiah.
Hell, a term which originally corresponded more ex- actly to Hades, being derived from the Saxon hclan, to cover, and signifying merely the covered, or invisilile place— the habitation of those who have gone from this visible terrestrial region to the world of spirits. But it has been so long appropriated in common usage to the place of futiu-e punishment for the wicked, that its ear- lier meaning has been lost sight of. In the English Bi- ble it is used in the wider sense.
I. Ilehi-ew and Greek Terms. — The three words, which all but monopolize the subject, are ^1X1^, SheoV, in the O. T. ; and "AiSriQ, Hades, and Viivva, Gehenna, m the N.T. bix\^ occurs 65 times; in 61 of these it is rendered in the Sept. by"Ac?;/t' ; twice by QdvaroQ (2 Sam. xxii. G, and Prov. xxiii, 14) ; and twice omitted in the com- mon text (Job xxiv, 19 ; Ezek. xxxii, 21). In tlie Vulg. bix^p is translated 48 times by Infermis, and 17 times by Inftnis [mostly Ivferi (plur.)]. In our A. V. it is represented 31 times by Grave, 31 times by Hell, and 3 times by Pit. In the'N. Test, our word Hdl occurs 23 times; 12 times it stands for T'tivva, and 11 times ^per- haps the twelfth should be added, see Tischendorf and Bruder (Concord.) ou Eev. iii, 7] for"Ac?;£. The Vulg.
HELL
166
HELL
closely follows the original in its N.-T. renderings ; in all the twelve passages Piivva is sini])ly copied into Ge- henna, while Infernus stands for every occurrence of "Adijc, except once (Matt, xvi, 18), where the phrase TTvXai adov Q'' gates of heir) becomes "portoe inferir Since, therefore, ilX'r,''Ac;;c, and Yuvva, are employ- ed in the sacred original to designate the mysteries of Hell, we proceed to give first their probable derivation, and then their meaning, so far as Holy Scripture assists in its discovery.
(I.) Their Derivation. — 1. SiX'J (or, as it is occasion- ally >vritten, ^X"^), Sheol', is by most of the old writers (see Cocceius, Lex. p. 840, 841 ; Schindler, Lex. Pent. 1782 ; Itobinson, Key to Hehrew Bible, ii, 217 ; and Leigh, Crit. Sacra, i, 238 ; ii, 6) referred for its origin to ^Xd, to de- maml, seek, or ash. They are not agreed as to the mode of connecting the derivative with this root; Cocceius suggests an absurd reason, "bix'j notat eura locum in quo qui est in qucestione est" (!) A more respectable so- lution is suggested by those who see in the iiisutiuhle- ness of >1X'iJ (Prov. xxx, 15, 16) a good ground for con- necting it with the root in question. Thus Fagius on Gen. xxxvii ; Buxtorf, Lexicon, s. v., referring to Isa. v, 14; Habak. ii, 5 ; Prov% xxvii, 20. (Ernst Meier, Hehr. W-iv-h, p. 187, also adopts this root, but he is far-fetched and obscure in his view of its relation to the derived word). (A good defence [by a modern scholar] of this derivation of Sheol from the verb bX"^ is given by Gli- der, L^ehre v. d. Erschein. Jesu Christi unter den Todten [Berne, 1853], and more briefly in his art. Hades [Her- zog, v„4:41, Clark's trans, ii, 468]. His defence is based on the many passages which urge the insatiable demand of Sheol for all men, such as those we have mentioned in the text, and Gen. xxxvii, 35 ; 1 Sam. xxviii ; Psa. vi, 6, and Ixxxix, 49. See also Yenema [on Psa. xvi, 10] ; J. A. Quensted, Tract, de Sepultura Veterum, ix, 1.) Bottcher {De Inferis,\). 76, § 159) finds in the root bsd, to be kollojv, a better origin for oiu- word. Gesenius (Thes. p. 1347), who adopts the same derivation, sup- poses that ?"d means to dig out, and so contrives to luiite hv'd and bx'j. by making the primary idea of digging lead to the derived one of seeking (see Job iii, 21). Bottcher goes on to connect the German words Hohl piollow) and Hohle (cavity) with the idea indicated by ?"D, and timidly suggests the possibility oi Ildlle (Hell) coming from Hohle. Whilst decidedly rejecting this derivation, we do not object to his derivation of the He- brew noun ; amidst the avowed uncertainty of the case, it seems to be the least objectionable of the suggestions which have been offered, and, to provide an intelligible sense for the word Sheol, most in harmony Avith many Biblical passages. Bottcher defines tlie term to mean " vastus locus suhterraneus" (p. 72, § 153). This agrees very well with the rendering of our A. V. in so far as it has used the comprehensive word Hell, which properly signifies " a covered or concealed place."