Since modern travellers have made us acquainted with the country beyond the Jordan, no doubt has been entertained that the Mount Hermon of those texts is no other than the present Jebel es-S/ieik, or the Sheik's Momitain, or, which is equivalent. Old Man's Mountain, a name it is said to have obtained from its fancied re- semblance (being topped with snow, which sometimes lies in lengthened streaks upon its sloping ridges) to the hoary head and beard of a venerable sheik (Elliot, i, 317). This Jebel es-sheik is a south-eastern, and in that direction culminating, branch of Anti-Libanus. Its top is partially covered with snow throughout the summer, and has an elevation of 937G feet (Van de Yelde, Afe- moir, p. 170, 176). Dr. Clarke, who saw it in the month of July, says, " The summit is so lofty that the snow en- tirely covered the upper part of it, not lying in patches, but investing all the higher part with that perfectly white and smooth velvet-like appearance which snow only exhibits when it is very deep." Dr. Robinson only differs from the preceding by the statement that the snow is perpetual only in the ravines, so that the top presents the appearance of radiant stripes around and below the summit {Bib. Researches, iii, 344). At his last visit to Palestine, he obsen'es, under date of April 9 (new ed. of Researches, iii, 48), that "the snow extended for some distance down the sides, while on the peaks of Lebanon opposite there was none." In August, 1852, Rev. J. L. Porter, of Damascus, ascended Jebel es-Sheik from Ra- shey, and spent a night near its summit. He describes the highest peak as composed strictly of three peaks, so near each other as to appear one from below. On the south-easternmost of these peaks are some interesting remains, called Kulal Antar, probably relics of an an- cient Syro-Phcenician temple, consisting of a circular wall around a rock about 15 feet high, which has a rude excavation upon it, and heaps of beveled stones adjoin- ing it. The snow-banks explain the supph' anciently made for cooling drinks in Tyre and Sidon {Bibliotheca Sac. Jan. 1854). The summit is about 9000 feet above the Mediterranean (Lieut.Warren, in the Quarterli/ State- ment of the "Palestine Exploration Fund," No. 5, p. 210, where also are a description and cut of the ruined temple).
In two passages of Scripture this mountain is called
Baal-hermon ('|i"2"in br'3, Judg. iii, 3 ; 1 Chron. v, 23),
and the only reason that can be assigned for it is that
Baal was there worshipped. Jerome savs of it, " Dici-
IV.-O
,turque in rertice ejus hmr/nc temph/m, quod ab cthnicia cultiii habetiu: e regione Paneadis et Libani"— reference must here be made to the building whose ruins are still seen {Onom. s. v. Hermon). It is remarkable that Her- mon was anciently encompassed by a circle of temples, all facing the summit. Can it be that this momitain was the great sanctuary of Baal, and that it was to the old Syrians what Jerusalem was to tlie Jews, and what Jlec- ca is to the Moslems ? (See Porter, Handbook for Syria and Pal. p. 454, 457 ; Reland, Palwst. p. 323 sq.) The above described ruins seem to confirm this conjecture. See Baal-iierjios.
There can be no doubt that one of the southern peaks of Hermon was the scene of the Transfigiu-atioii. Our Lord travelled from Bethsaida, on the northern slope of the Sea of Galilee, " to the coasts of Cajsarea-Philippi," where he led his disciples "into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them ;" and afterwards he re- turned, going towards Jerusalem through Galilee (comp. Mark viii, 22-28; Matt, xvi, 13; Mark ix, 2-13,30-33). No other mountain in Palestine seems so appropriate to the circumstances of that glorious scene. Ft)r many centuries a monkish tradition assigned this honor to Ta- bor (Robinson, Bib. Res. ii, 358), but it is now restored to its proper locality, and will give additional celebrity to the prince of Syrian mountains (Porter's Damascus, i, 306).
The mention of Hermon along Avith Tabor ir. ^^n. Ixxxix, 12, led to its being sought near the latter moun- tain, where, accorduigly, travellers and maps give us a " Little Herrrion." But that passage, as well as Psa. cxxxiii, 3, applies better to the great mountain already described ; and in the former it seems perfectly natural for the Psalmist to call upon these mountains, respect- ively the most conspicuous in the western and eastern divisions of the Hebrew territory, to rejoice in the name of the Lord. Besides, we are to consider that Jebel es- sheikh is seen from jMount Tabor, and that both togeth- er are visible from the plain of Esdraelon. There is no reason to suppose that the so-called Little Hermon is at all mentioned in Scripture. Its actual name is Jebel ed-Duhy; it is a shapeless, barren, and uninterestuig mass of hills, in the north of the valley of Jezreel and opposite Momit Gilboa (Robinson, Researches, iii, 171). — Kit to, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.
Her'monite (Psa. xliii, 7). See Herjion.
Hernandez. See Julian the Little.
Her'od (tinwcr]Q, hero-like, a name that appears likewise among the Greeks, Dio. Cass. Ixxi, 35 ; Philost. Soph, ii, 1, etc.), the name of several persons of the roj-al family of Juda?a m the time of Christ and the apostles (see Noldius, De vita et gestis Herodttm, in Havercamp's edit, of Josephus ; Reland, Palcest. p. 174 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Isniili/< II. i, ] GO sq. Other monographs are named by Voll K (iiiiu. li/ili ,/■ Programmatvm, p. 16,77, and by Fiirst, Bi'i/ini/i/ni Jiiilaica, i, 386; ii, 127-130. See also De Saulcy, ///.s/. d' II erode, Par. 1867; Glider, IIerodes;Be.m, I809)j whose history is incidentally uivolved in that of the N. Testament, but is copiously detailed by Josephus; notices of it also occur in the classical imters, especially Strabo (xvi, c. ii, 16). The following account is chiefly taken from the Dictionaries of Kitto and Smith, s. v.