Jerusalem, and they willingly hearkened to the complaints made against Herod by some of the relatives of those whom he had slain. He was accordingly summoned to take his trial before the Sanhedrim nor did he disobey the summons; but on the day of trial he appeared at the tribunal gorgeously clad in purple, and surrounded by a numerous band of armed attendants. His acquittal was speedily pronounced. One only of the judges ventured to speak of his guilt, and the venerable old man prophesied that, sooner or later, this same Herod would punish both them and Hyrcanus for their pusillanimity.

An

which ended in his utter ruin. Aretas, to avenge his daughter, sent a considerable army against Herod, whose generals in vain attempted to oppose its progress. The forces which they led were totally destroyed, and instant ruin seemed to threaten both Herod and his dominions. appeal to the Romans afforded the only hope of safety. Aretas was haughtily ordered by the em peror to desist from the prosecution of the war; and Herod accordingly escaped the expected overthrow. But he was not allowed to enjoy his prosperity long. His nephew Agrippa having obtained the title of King, Herodias urged him to make a journey to Italy and demand the same honour. He weakly assented to his wife's ambitious representations; but the project proved fatal to them both. Agrippa anticipated their designs; and when they appeared before Caligula they were met by accusations of hostility to Rome, the truth of which they in vain attempted to disprove. Sentence of deposition was accordingly passed upon Herod, and both he and his wife were sent into banishment, and died at Lyons in Gaul.

HEROD AGRIPPA, alluded to above, was the son of Aristobulus, so cruelly put to death by his father Herod the Great. The earlier part of his life was spent at Rome, where the magnificence and luxury in which he indulged reduced him to poverty. After a variety of adventures and sufferings he was thrown into bonds by Tiberius; but on the succession of Caligula was not only restored to liberty, but invested with royal dignity, and made tetrarch of Abilene, and of the districts formerly pertaining to the tetrarchy of Philip. His influence at the Roman court increasing, he subsequently obtained Galilee and Peræa, and at length Judæa and Samaria, his dominion being thus extended over the whole country of Palestine.

In the events which followed the death of Cæsar, Herod found fresh opportunities of accomplishing his ambitious designs. By collecting a considerable tribute for Cassius in Galilee, he obtained the friendship of that general, and was appointed to the command of the army in Syria. No less successful with Marc Antony, he overcame the powerful enemies who represented the dangerous nature of his ambitious views, and was exalted, with his brother Phasælus, to the dignity of tetrarch of Judæa. They had not, however, long enjoyed their office when the approach of Antigonus against Jerusalem compelled them to meditate immediate flight. Phasælus and Hyrcanus fell into the hands of the enemy; but Herod, making good his escape, hastened to Rome, where he pleaded his cause and his former merits with so much skill, that he was solemnly proclaimed king of the Jews, and endowed with the proper ensigns and rights of royalty. Augustus, three years afterwards, confirmed this act of the senate; and Herod himself scrupled not to perpetrate the most horrible crimes to give further stability to his throne. The murder of his wife Mariamne, a daughter of Hyrcanus, and of his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus, place him in the foremost rank of those tyrants whose names blacken the page of history. Of the massacre at Bethlehem the Jewish historian says nothing; but it has been well observed that such an event, in a reign marked by so many horrible deeds, and occurring as it did in a small, obscure town, was not likely to obtain a place in the na-church, and he killed James, the brother of John, tional annals. As a vain attempt to set aside the purposes of God, it affords a startling instance of the awful follies to which the acutest and most politic of rulers may be tempted by the love of empire. Had Herod not proved, by the acts here alluded to, the little confidence which he felt in himself, or in the actual claims which his courage and ability gave him to dominion, he might have merited the title of Great, conferred on him by his admirers. His reign, prolonged through thirtyseven years, was in many respects prosperous; and the splendour of his designs restored to Jerusalem, as a city, much of its earlier magnificence. According to the custom of the times, Herod made his sons the heirs to his kingdom by a formal testament, leaving its ratification to the will of the emperor. Augustus assenting to its main provisions, Archelaus became tetrarch of Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa; Philip, of Trachonitis and Ituræa; and

HEROD ANTIPAS, of Galilee and Peræa. This Herod was first married to a daughter of King Aretas of Arabia; but forming an unholy attachment for Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, he soon became involved in a course of guilt

To secure the good-will of his subjects, he yielded to their worst passions and caprices. Memorable instances are afforded of this in the apostolic history, where we are told that He stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the

with the sword; and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also (Acts xii. 1-3). His awful death, described in the same chapter, and by Josephus almost in the same words (Antiq. xix. 8), occurred in the fifty-fourth year of his age.

HEROD AGRIPPA, the son of the above-named, was in his seventeenth year when his father died. The emperor Claudius, at whose court the young Agrippa was then residing, purposed conferring upon him the dominions enjoyed by his father. From this he was deterred, says Josephus, by the advice of his ministers, who represented the danger of trusting an important province of the empire to so youthful a ruler. Herod was, therefore, for the time, obliged to content himself with the small principality of Chalcis, but was not long after created sovereign of the tetrarchies formerly belonging to Philip and Lysanias; a dominion increased at a subsequent period by the grant of a considerable portion of Peræa. The habits which he had formed at Rome, and his strong attachment to the people to whose rulers he was indebted for his prosperity, brought him into frequent disputes with his own nation. He

an irritated expression,' the most obvious application would be to the goose, a bird not, perhaps, otherwise noticed in the Hebrew Scriptures, though it was constantly eaten in Egypt, was not held unclean by the Jews, and, at some seasons, must have frequented the lakes of Palestine. The he ron, though not so constantly hissing, can utter a similar sound of displeasure with much more meaning, and the common species Ardea cinerea is found in Egypt, and is also abundant in the Hauran of Palestine, where it frequents the margins of lakes and pools, and the reedy watercourses in the deep ravines, striking and devouring an immense quantity of fish. The Greek ȧvoraîa (Hom. Odyss. i. 320), though in sound resembling anaphah, is not, therefore, as Bochart pretends, necessarily a mountain hawk; for then the root could not be taken from anaph, unless it applied to one of the smaller species, such as the Kestril or sparrow-hawk.-C. H. S.

HESHBON (; Sept. 'Eoeßv; Euseb. 'Ergeßov), a town in the southern district of the Hebrew territory beyond the Jordan, parallel with, and twenty-one miles east of, the point where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, and nearly midway between the rivers Jabbok and Arnon. It originally belonged to the Moabites; but when the Israelites arrived from Egypt, it was found to be in the possession of the Amorites, whose king, Sihon, is styled both king of the Amorites and king of Heshbon, and is expressly said to have 'reigned in Heshbon' (Josh. iii. 10°; comp. Num. xxi. 26; Deut. ii. 9). It was taken by Moses (Num. xxi. 23-26), and eventually became a Levitical city (Josh. xxi. 39; 1 Chron. vi. 81) in the tribe of Reuben (Num. xxxii. 37; Josh. xiii. 17); but being on the confines of Gad, is sometimes assigned to the latter tribe (Josh. xxi. 39; 1 Chron. vi. 81). After the ten tribes were sent into exile, Heshbon was taken possession of by the Moabites, and hence is mentioned by the prophets in their declarations against Moab (Isa. xv. 4; Jer. xlviii. 2, 34, 45). Under King Alexander Jannæus we find it again reckoned as a Jewish city (Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 15.4). In the time of Eusebius and Jerome it was still a place of some consequence under the name of Esbus (EoBous); but at the present day it is known by its ancient name of Heshbon, in the slightly modified form of Hesban. The ruins of a considerable town still exist, covering the sides of an insulated hill, but not a single edifice is left entire. The view from the summit is very extensive, embracing the ruins of a vast number of cities, the names of some of which bear a strong resemblance to those mentioned in Scripture. There are reservoirs connected with this and the other received towns of this region. These have been supposed to be the pools of Heshbon mentioned by Solomon (Cant. vii. 4); but, say Irby and Mangles, The ruins are uninteresting, and the only pool we saw was too insignificant to be one of those mentioned in Scripture.' In two of the cisterns among the ruins they found about three dozen of human skulls and bones, which they justly regard as an illustration of Gen. xxxvii. 20 (Travels, p. 472; see also Burckhardt, George Robinson, Lord Lindsay, &c.).

HEZEKIAH.

Ahaz, and thirteenth king of Judah, who reigned
from B.c. 725 to B.C. 696.

From the commencement of his reign the efforts
of Hezekiah were directed to the reparation of the
effects of the grievous errors of his predecessors;
and during his time the true religion and the
theocratical policy flourished as they had not
done since the days of David. The Temple was
cleared and purified; the utensils and forms of
service were restored to their ancient order; all
the changes introduced by Ahaz were abolished;
all the monuments of idolatry were destroyed,
and their remains cast into the brook Kedron.
Among the latter was the brazen serpent of
Moses, which had been deposited first in the
Tabernacle, and then in the Temple, as a me
morial of the event in which it originated: and
it is highly to the credit of Hezekiah, and shows
more clearly than any other single circumstance
the spirit of his operations, that even this interest-
ing relic was not spared when it seemed in danger
of being turned to idolatrous uses. Having suc-
ceeded by his acts and words in rekindling the
zeal of the priests and of the people, the king
appointed a high festival, when, attended by his
court and people, he proceeded in high state to the
Temple, to present sacrifices of expiation for the
past irregularities, and to commence the re-or-
ganised services. A vast number of sacrifices
evinced to the people the zeal of their superiors,
and Judah, long sunk in idolatry, was at length
reconciled to God (2 Kings xviii. 1-8; 2 Chron.
| xxix.).

The revival of the great annual festivals was
included in this reformation. The Passover,
which was the most important of them all, had
not for a long time been celebrated according to
the rites of the law; and the day on which it
regularly fell, in the first year of Hezekiah, being
already past, the king, nevertheless, justly con-
ceiving the late observance a less evil than the
entire omission of the feast, directed that it should
be kept on the 14th day of the second month,
being one month after its proper time. Couriers
were sent from town to town, inviting the people
to attend the solemnity; and even the ten tribes
which formed the neighbouring kingdom were
invited to share with their brethren of Judah in
a duty equally incumbent on all the children of
Abraham. Of these some received the message
gladly, and others with disdain; but a consider-
able number of persons belonging to the northern-
most tribes (which had more seldom than the others
been brought into hostile contact with Judah)
came to Jerusalem, and by their presence im-
parted a new interest to the solemnity. A profound
and salutary impression appears to have been
made on this occasion; and so strong was the
fervour and so great the number of the assembled
people, that the festival was prolonged to twice
its usual duration; and during this time the
multitude was fed abundantly from the countless
offerings presented by the king and his nobles.
Never since the time of Solomon, when the whole
of the twelve tribes were wont to assemble at the
Holy City, had the Passover been observed with
such magnificence (2 Chron. xxx.).

The good effect of this procedure was seen when the people carried back to their homes the zeal for the Lord which had thus been kindled, HEZEKIAH (7??!!; Sept. 'EĊekías), son of | and proceeded to destroy and cast forth all the

abominations by which their several towns had been defiled; thus performing again, on a smaller scale, the doings of the king in Jerusalem. Even thehigh places,' which the pious kings of former days had spared, were on this occasion abolished and overthrown; and even the men of Israel, who had attended the feast, were carried away by the same holy enthusiasm, and, on returning to their homes, broke all their idols in pieces (2 Chron. xxxi. 1).

The attention of this pious and able king was extended to whatever concerned the interests of religion in his dominions. He caused a new collection of Solomon's proverbs to be made, being the same which occupy chaps. xxv. to xxix. of the book which bears that name. The sectional divisions of the priests and Levites were re-established; the perpetual sacrifices were recommenced, and maintained from the royal treasure; the stores of the temple were once more filled by the offerings of the people, and the times of Solomon and Jehoshaphat seemed to have returned (2 Chron. xxxi.). These improvements indicate the peculiar nature of the operations required to establish the character of a good prince under the Hebrew theocracy. It was not necessary that he should create new and beneficial institutions; even from the most reforming king it was only required that he should re-establish the old institutions which had fallen into neglect, and to abolish all recent innovations adverse to their principles. Of all people the Hebrews lived most on the memories of the past; and the retrospective character of all their reformations necessarily arose out of the divine authority by which their institutions had been established, and their perfect adaptation to their condition as a peculiar people.

is more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and fight our battles.' Nevertheless, Hezekiah was himself distrustful of the course he had taken, and at length, to avert the calamities of war, sent to the Assyrian king offers of submission. Sennacherib, who was anxious to proceed against Egypt, consented to withdraw his forces on the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold; which the king was not able to raise without exhausting both his own treasury and that of the temple, and stripping off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the Lord's house were overlaid (2 Kings xviii. 7-16).

But after he had received the silver and gold, the Assyrian king broke faith with Hezekiah, and continued to prosecute his warlike operations. While he employed himself in taking the fortresses of Judæa, which it was important to secure before he marched against Egypt, he sent three of his generals, Rabshakeh, Tartan, and Rabsaris, with part of his forces, to threaten Jerusalem with a siege unless it were surrendered, and the inhabitants submitted to be sent into Assyria; and this summons was delivered in language highly insulting not only to the king and people, but to the God they worshipped. When the terms of the summons were made known to Hezekiah, he gathered courage from the conviction that God would not fail to vindicate the honour of his insulted name. In this conviction he was confirmed by the prophet Isaiah, who, in the Lord's name, promised the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the blasphemous Assyrian: Lo, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land' (2 Kings xix. 7). The rumour which Sennacherib heard was of the advance of Tirhakah the Ethiopian to the aid of the Egyptians, with a force which the Assyrians did not deem it prudent to meet; but, before withdrawing to his own country, Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah, designed to check the gladness which his retire

the predicted blast-probably the hot pestilential south wind-smote 180,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians, and released the men of Judah from all their fears (2 Kings xviii. 17-37; xix. 1-34; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-23; Isa. xxxvi. 37).

This great work having been accomplished and consolidated (2 Kings xvii. 7, &c.), Hezekiah applied himself to repair the calamities, as he had repaired the crimes, of his father's government. He took arms, and recovered the cities of Judah which the Philistines had seized. Encouraged by this success, he ventured to withhold the tribute which his father had paid to the Assy-ment was likely to produce. But that very night rian king; and this act, which the result shows to have been imprudent, drew upon the country the greatest calamities of his reign. Only a few years before, namely, in the fourth of his reign, the Assyrians had put an end to the kingdom of Israel and sent the ten tribes into exile; but had abstained from molesting Hezekiah, as he was already their tributary. Seeing his country invaded on all sides by the Assyrian forces under Sennacherib, and Lachish, a strong place which covered Jerusalem, on the point of falling into their hands, Hezekiah, not daring to meet them in the field, occupied himself in all necessary preparations for a protracted defence of Jerusalem, in hope of assistance from Egypt, with which country he had contracted an alliance (Isa. xxx. 1-7). Such alliances were not favoured by the Divine sovereign of Israel and his prophets, and no good ever came of them. But this alliance did not render the good king unmindful of his true source of strength; for in quieting the alarms of the people he directed their attention to the consideration that they in fact had more of power and strength in the divine protection than the Assyrian king possessed in all his host: There |

It was in the same year, and while Jerusalem was still threatened by the Assyrians, that Hezekiah fell sick of the plague; and the aspect which the plague-boil assumed assured him that he must die. In this he was confirmed by Isaiah, who warned him that his end approached. The love of life, the condition of the country-the Assyrians being present in it, and the throne of David without an heir-caused him to grieve at this doom, and to pray earnestly that he might be spared. And his prayer was heard in heaven. The prophet returned with the assurance that in three days he should recover, and that fifteen additional years of life should be given to him. This communication was altogether so extraordinary, that the king required some token by which his belief might be justified; and accordingly the sign which he required was granted to him. The shadow of the sun went back upon the dial of Ahaz, the ten degrees it had gone down [DIAL].