Hi'el (Heb. ChieV, bx-^n, life of, i. a. from God, or perh. for ^X'^n';i, God shall live ; Sept. 'Axi/jX), a native of Bethel, who rebuilt Jericho (B.C. post 915), above 700 years after its destruction by the Israelites, and who, in so doing (1 Kings xvi, 34), incurred, in the death of his eldest son Abiram and his youngest son Segub, the effects of the imprecation pronomiced by Joshua (Josh, vi, 26) :
" Accursed the man in the sight of Jehovah, Who shall arise and build this city, even Jericho ; With [the loss ofj his first-born shall he found it, And with [the loss of] his youngest shall he fix its gates."
— Kitto. See Jericho. Strabo speaks of such cursing of a destroyed city as an ancient custom, and instances the curses imprecated by Agamemnon and Croesus (Gro- tius,Annot. ad Josh, vi, 26) ; Masius compares the curs- ing of Carthage by the Romans (Poll Si/n.). The term Betheiite ("^bXil T'^a) here only is by some rendered famili) of cursing (Pet. Mart\T), and also house or place of cursing (Ar., Syr., and Chald. verss.), qu. nbx r,ia ; but there seems no reason for questioning the accuracy of the Sept, o Bai9>]\irt]g, which is approved by most commentators, and sanctioned by Gesenius (Lex. s. v.). The rebuilding of Jericho was 'an intrusion upon the kingdom of Jehoshaphat, unless, with Peter :MartjT, we suppose that Jericho had already been detached from it by the kings of Israel.— Smith. See Accvrsed.
Hieracas. See Hierax.
Hierap'olis ('IfpoTroXic, sacred cifi/), a city of Phrj-gia, situated above the junction of the rivers" Ly- ons and IMajander, not far from Colossse and Laodicea, where there was a Christian church under the charge ' of Epaphras as early as the time of the apostle Paul, ' who commends him for his fidelity and zeal (Colos. iv, 12, 13). The place is visible from the theatre at Lao- dicea, from which it is five miles distant northward. Its association with Laodicea and Colossas is just what we should expect, for the tliree towns were all m the
basin of the JM.eander, and within a few miles of one an- other. It is probable that Ilierapolis was one of the " illustres Asiie urbes" (Tacitus, A nn. xiv, 27) which, with Laodicea, were simultaneously desolated by an earthquake about the time when Christianity was cstab- hshed in this district. There is little doubt that the church of Hierapolis was founded at the same time with that of Colossie, and that its characteristics in the apos- tolic period were the same. Smith, in his journey to the Seven Churches (1671), was the first to describe the ancient sites in this neighborhood. He was followed by Pococke and Chandler ; and more recently by Iiich- ter, Cockerell, Hartley, Arundel, etc. The "place now bears the name o\ Pamhuk-Kalek (Cotton-Castle), from the white appearance of the cliffs of the mountain on the lower summit, or, rather, an extended terrace, on which the ruins are situated. It owed its celebrity, and probably the sanctity indicated by its ancient name, to its very remarkable thermal springs of mineral water (Dio Cass. Ixviii, 27 ; PUny, Hist. Nat. ii, 95), the sin- giUar effects of which, in the formation of stalactites and incrustations by its deposits, are shown in the ac- comits of Pococke (ii, pt. 2, c. 13) and Chandler {Asia Minor, c. 68) to have been accurately described by Strabo (xiii, 629). A great number and variety of sep- ulchres are found in the approaches to the site, which on one side is sufficiently defended by the precipices overlooking the valleys of the Lycus and 3Ia;ander, while on the other sides the to-wni walls are still observable. The magnificent nuns clearly attest the ancient impor- tance of the place. The main street can still be traced in its whole extent, and is bordered by the remains of three Christian churches, one of which is upwards of 300 feet long. About the middle of this street, just above the mineral springs, Pococke, in 1741, thought that he tUstinguished some remains of the Temple of ApoUo, which, accorduig to Damascius, quoted by Pho- tius (Biblioth. p. 1054), was in this situation. But the principal ruins are a theatre and gymnasium, both in a state of uncommon preservation ; the former 346 feet in diameter, the latter nearly filling a space 400 feet square. Strabo (loc. cit.) and Pliny (Hist. Nat. v, 29) mention a cave called the Plutonium, filled with pestilential vapors, similar to the celebrated Grotto del Cane in Italy. High up the momitain-side is a deep recess far into the moun- tain ; and ]Mr. Arundell says that he sliould have sup-
Coin of Hierapolis.
posed that the mephitic cavern lay in this recess, if jMr. Cockerell had not found it near the theatre, the ])osition anciently assigned to it ; and he conjectures that it may be the same in which Chandler distinguished the area of a stadium (Arundell, Asia Minor, ii, 210). The same writer gives, from the Oriens Chnslianus, a list of the bishops of Hierapolis down to the time of the emperor Isaac Angelus. (See Col. Leake's Gcogr. of Asia Mi- nor, p. 252, 253; HamilLon's JRes. in Asia Minor, i, 514, 517 sq. ; Fellows, Lycio, p. 270 ; A sia Minor, p. 283 sq. ; Cramer's Asia Minor, ii, 37 sq.). — Kitto ; Smith.