7. One of the chief priests (contemporary with Je- shua as high-priest) who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Xeh. xii, 7). His son Hashabiah is named in vcr. 21. B.C. 536.
8. One of those who supported Ezra on the right hand while reading the law to the people (Xeh. viii, 4). B.C. cir. 410. It is somewhat uncertain whether he even belonged to the Levitical family ; the date of the events with which he is associated seems to forbid his identification with the foregoing.
Hill is the rendering of the following original words in the Auth.Ters. of the Bible. See Palestixk.
1. GiUah', in^'^5, from a root akua to "23, to be high, which seems to have the force of curvature or humpish- ness. A word involving this idea is peculiarly a))plica- ble to the rounded hills of Palestine, and from it are de- rived, as lias been pointed out under Gibeah, the names of several places situated on hills. Our translators have been consistent in rendering (jiUah by " hill :" in four passages only quaUfying it as "little hiU," doubtless for the more complete antithesis to "momitain" (Psa. Ixv, 12 ; Ixxii, 3 ; cxiv, 4, 6). See Topographical Terms.
2. But they have also employed tlie same English word for the very different term har, ^tj, which has a much more extended sense than giFah, meaning a whole district rather than an individual eminence, and to which our word ''motmtaiii' answers with tolerable ac- curacy. This exchange is always undesirable, but it sometimes occurs so as to confuse the meaning of a pas- sage where it is desirable that the topography should
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be unmistakable. For instance, 'u\ Ezek. xxiv, 4, the " hill" is the same which is elsewhere in the same chap- ter (ver. 12, 13, 18, etc.) and book consistently and ac- ciuratcly rendered " mount" and " mountain." In Numb, xiv, 44, 45, the " hill" is the " mountain" of verse 40, as also in Deut, i, 41, 43, compared with 24, 44. In Josh. XV, 9, the allusion is to the IMount of Olives, correctly called "mountain" in the preceding verse; and so also in 2 Sam. xvi, 13. The country of the " hills," in Deut. i, 7 ; Josh, ix, 1 ; x, 40 ; xi, 1 6, is the elevated district of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, which is correctly called " the mountain" in the earliest descriptions of Palestine (Numb, xiii, 29), and in many subsequent pas- sages. The " holy hill" (Psa. ili, 4). the " hill of Jeho- vah" (xxiv, 3), the "hill of God" (Ixviii, 15). are noth- ing else than "Mount Zion." In 2 Kings i, 9, and iv, 27, the use of the word " hill" obscures the allusion to Carmel, which in other passages of the life of the proph- et (e. g. 1 Kings xviii, 19; 2 Kings iv, 25) has the term " mount" correctly attached to it. Other places in the historical books in which the same substitution weakens the force of the narrative are as follows : Gen. vii, 19 ; Deut. viii, 7; Josh, xiii, G; xviii, 13, 14; Judg. xvi, 3; 1 Sam. xxiii, 14 ; xxv, 20 ; xxvi, 13 ; 2 Sam. xiii, 34 ; 1 Kings XX, 23, 28 ; xxii, 17, etc. See IMolntain.
3. On one occasion the word ma'aleh', ilbS["Q, is ren- dered " hill," viz. 1 Sam. ix, 11, where it would be better to employ " ascent," or some similar term. See Maaleii.
4. In the N. T.'the word " hill" is employed to render the Greek word jSovvog ; but on one occasion it is used for opog, elsewhere "mountain," so as to obscure the connection between the two parts of the same narrative. The " hill" from which Jesus was coming down in Luke ix, 36, is the same as " the mountain" into which he had gone for his transfiguration the day before (comp. verse 28). In jMatt. v, 14, and Luke iv, 29, tipoc is also ren- dered "hill," but not Avith the inconvenience just no- ticed. In Luke i, 39, the " hill country" (»/ optivlf) is the same "mountain of Judah" to which frequent refer- ence is made in the 0. Test. — Smith, s. v. See Judah, TumE OK.
HILL-GODS (Oi-nn i.-iKn;, "gods of the hills") are mentioned (1 Kings xx, 23) by the heathenish Syrians as being those of the Hebrews, because more powerful ; and such deities (dii montium), i. e. those that have their dwelling or throne on hills, whence they command con- trol of all the region within view, were generally wor- shipped by the ancient pagans (see Dougtsei Anal, i, 178; Deyling, Observ. iii, no. 12), sometimes in general ((iruter, [nscript. f. 21 ; Lactant. Moi't.persec. 11), some- times as individuals (Arnobius, Adv.gentt. iv, 9; Augus- tine, Civ. dei, iv, 8), since heights were generally regard- ed as seats of the gods (Herodotus, i, 131 ; Xenophon, Mem. iii, 8, 10; Strabo, xv, 732; Dougtsei Anal, i, 107; Rimptsch, De sacris gentium in montibus, Lipsire, 1719; Creuzer, SymboUk, i, 158 sq.; Gesenius, Jesa. ii, 282; Gramberg's Religionsid. i, 20). See High Place. Gro- tius (ad loc.) specially compares the opaliciTtjQ Pan. (See Walch, Be deo Ebrceor. montano, Jen. 1746.) — Wi- ner, i, 154.