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is the rendering of the following original words in the Auth. Vers. of the Bible. SEE PALESTINE.
1. Gib'ah,', âַּáְòָä , from a root akin to âָּáִò , to be high, which seems to have the force of curvature or humpishness. A word involving this idea is peculiarly applicable to the rounded hills of Palestine, and from it are derived, as has been pointed out under GIBEAH, the names of several places situated on hills. Our translators have been consistent in rendering gib'ah by “hill:” in four passages only qualifying it as “little hill,” doubtless for the more complete antithesis to “mountain” (Psa_65:12; Psa_72:3; Psa_114:4; Psa_114:6). SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.
2. But they have also employed the same English word for the very different term bar, äִø , which has a much more extended sense than gib'ah, meaning a whole district rather than an individual eminence, and to which our word “mountain” answers with tolerable accuracy. This exchange is always undesirable, but it sometimes occurs so as to confuse the meaning of a passage where it is desirable that the topography should be unmistakable. For instance, in Eze_24:4, the “hill” is the same which is elsewhere in the same chapter (Eze_24:12-13; Eze_24:18, etc.) and book consistently and accurately rendered “mount” and “mountain.” In Num_14:44-45, the “hill” is the “mountain” of Num_14:40, as also in Deu_1:41; Deu_1:43, compared with Deu_1:24; Deu_1:44. In Jos_15:9, the allusion is to the Mount of Olives, correctly called “mountain” in the preceding verse; and so also in 2Sa_16:13. The country of the “hills,” in Deu_1:7; Jos_9:1; Jos_10:40; Jos_11:16, is the elevated district of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, which is correctly called “the mountain” in the earliest descriptions of Palestine (Num_13:29), and in many subsequent passages. The “holy hill” (Psa_3:4), the “hill of Jehovah” (Psa_24:3), the “hill of God” (Psa_68:15). are nothing else than “Mount Zion.” In 2Ki_1:9; 2Ki_4:27, the use of the word “hill” obscures the allusion to Carmel, which in other passages of the life of the prophet (e.g. 1Ki_18:19; 2Ki_4:25) 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_7:19; Deu_8:7; Jos_13:6; Jos_18:13-14; Jdg_16:3; 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_25:20; 1Sa_26:13; 2Sa_13:34; 1Ki_20:23; 1Ki_20:28; 1Ki_22:17, etc. SEE MOUNTAIN.
3. On one occasion the word ma'aleh', îִòֲìֶä , is rendered “hill,” viz. 1Sa_9:11, where it would be better to employ “ascent,” or some similar term. SEE MAALEH.
4. In the N.T. the word “hill” is employed to render the Greek word âïõíüò ; but on one occasion it is used for ὄñïò , 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 Luk_9:36, is the same as “the mountain” into which he had gone for his transfiguration the day before (comp. Luk_9:28). In Mat_5:14, and Luk_4:29, ὄñïò is also rendered “hill,” but not with the inconvenience just noticed. In Luk_1:39, the “hill country” ( ἡ ὀñåéíή ) is the same “mountain of Judah” to which frequent reference is made in the Old Testament. SEE JUDAH, TRIBE OF.