Immediately after the termination of this war, Hezekiah “was sick unto death,” owing, as the sacred historian strongly intimates, to his heart being improperly elevated on occasion of this miraculous deliverance, and not sufficiently acknowledging the hand of God in it, 2 Kings xx; Isaiah xxxviii. Isaiah was sent to bid him set his house in order, for he should die and not live. Hezekiah had instant recourse to God by prayer and supplications for his recovery; and the prophet had scarcely proceeded out of the threshold, when the Lord commanded him to return to Hezekiah, and to say to him, “Thus saith the Lord, I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” And to confirm to him the certainty of all these tokens of the divine regard, the shadow of the sun on the dial of Ahaz, at his request, went backward ten degrees. After his recovery, he composed an ode of thanksgiving to the God of all his mercies, which the Prophet Isaiah has recorded in his writings, Isaiah xxxviii, 10, 11. Yet, as an instance of human fickleness and frailty, we find Hezekiah, with all his excellencies, again forgetting himself, and incurring the divine displeasure. The king of Babylon having been informed of his sickness and recovery, sent ambassadors to congratulate him on his restoration: an honour with which the heart of Hezekiah was greatly elated; and, to testify his gratitude, he made a pompous display to them of all his treasures, his spices, and his rich vessels; and concealed from them nothing that was in his palace. In all this the pride of Hezekiah was gratified; and to humble him, Isaiah was sent to declare to him that his conduct was displeasing to God, and that a time should come when all the treasures of which he had made so vain a display should be removed to Babylon, and even his sons be made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah bowed submissively to the will of God, and acknowledged the divine goodness toward him, in ordaining peace and truth to continue during the remainder of his reign. He accordingly passed the latter years of his life in tranquillity, and contributed greatly to the prosperity of his people and kingdom. He died in the year of the world 3306, leaving behind him a son, Manasseh, who succeeded him in the throne: a son every way unworthy of such a father.
HIDDEKEL. See [Eden].
HIGH PLACES. The prophets reproach the Israelites for nothing with more zeal than for worshipping upon the high places. The destroying of these high places is a commendation given only to few princes in Scripture; and many, though zealous for the observance of the law, had not courage to prevent the people from sacrificing upon these eminences. Before the temple was built, the high places were not absolutely contrary to the law, provided God only was there adored, and not idols. They seem to have been tolerated under the judges; and Samuel offered sacrifices in several places where the ark was not present. Even in David’s time they sacrificed to the Lord at Shiloh, Jerusalem, and Gibeon. But after the temple was built at Jerusalem, and the ark had a fixed settlement, it was no longer allowed to sacrifice out of Jerusalem. The high places were much frequented in the kingdom of Israel. The people sometimes went upon those mountains which had been sanctified by the presence of patriarchs and prophets, and by appearances of God, to worship the true God there. This worship was lawful, except as to its being exercised where the Lord had not chosen. But they frequently adored idols upon these hills, and committed a thousand abominations in groves, and caves, and tents; and hence arose the zeal of pious kings and prophets to suppress the high places. Dr. Prideaux thinks it probable that the proseuchæ, open courts, built like those in which the people prayed at the tabernacle and the temple, were the same as those called high places in the Old Testament. His reason is, that the proseuchæ had groves in or near them, in the same manner as the high places.
HIN, הין, a liquid measure, as of oil, or of wine, Exodus xxix, 40; xxx, 24; Lev. xxiii. According to Josephus, it contained two Attic congii, and was therefore the sixth part of an ephah. He says that they offered with an ox half a hin of oil; in English measure, six pints, twenty-five thousand five hundred and ninety-eight solid inches. With a ram they offered the third part of a hin, or three pints, ten thousand four hundred and sixty-nine solid inches: with a lamb, the fourth part of a hin, or two pints, fifteen thousand and seventy-one solid inches.
HIND, אילה, Gen. xlix, 21; 2 Sam. xxii, 34; Job xxxix, 1; Psalm xviii, 33; xxix, 9; Prov. v, 19; Cant. ii, 7; iii, 5; Jer. xiv, 5; Hab. iii, 19; the mate or female of the stag. It is a lovely creature, and of an elegant shape. It is noted for its swiftness and the sureness of its step as it jumps among the rocks. David and Habakkuk both allude to this character of the hind. “The Lord maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and causeth me to stand on the high places,” Psalm xviii, 33; Hab. iii, 19. The circumstance of their standing on the high places or mountains is applied to these animals by Xenophon. Our translators make Jacob, prophesying of the tribe of Naphtali, say, “Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words,” Gen. xlix, 21. There is a difficulty and incoherence here which the learned Bochart removes by altering a little the punctuation of the original; and it then reads, “Naphtali is a spreading tree, shooting forth beautiful branches.” This, indeed, renders the simile uniform; but another critic has remarked that “the allusion to a tree seems to be purposely reserved by the venerable patriarch for his son Joseph, who is compared to the boughs of a tree; and the repetition of the idea in reference to Naphtali is every way unlikely. Beside,” he adds, “the word rendered ‘let loose,’ imports an active motion, not like that of the branches of a tree, which, however freely they wave, are yet attached to the parent stock; but an emission, a dismission, or sending forth to a distance: in the present case, a roaming, roaming at liberty. The verb ‘he giveth’ may denote shooting forth. It is used of production, as of the earth, which shoots forth, yields, its increase, Lev. xxvi, 4. The word rendered ‘goodly’ signifies noble, grand, majestic; and the noun translated ‘words’ radically signifies divergences, what is spread forth.” For these reasons he proposes to read the passage, “Naphtali is a deer roaming at liberty; he shooteth forth spreading branches,” or “majestic antlers.” Here the distinction of imagery is preserved, and the fecundity of the tribe and the fertility of their lot intimated. In our version of Psalm xxix, 9, we read, “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests.” Mr. Merrick, in an ingenious note on the place, attempts to justify the rendering; but Bishop Lowth, in his “Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews,” observes that this agrees very little with the rest of the imagery, either in nature or dignity; and that he does not feel himself persuaded, even by the reasonings of the learned Bochart on this subject: whereas the oak, struck with lightning, admirably agrees with the context. The Syriac seems, for אילות, hinds, to have read אלות, oaks, or rather, perhaps, terebinths. The passage may be thus versified:--
“Hark! his voice in thunder breaks,
And the lofty mountain quakes;
Mighty trees the tempests tear,
And lay the spreading forests bare!”
HINNOM, Valley of, called also Tophet, and by the Greeks Gehenna, a small valley on the south-east of Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Zion, where the Canaanites, and afterward the Israelites, sacrificed their children to the idol Moloch, by making them “pass through the fire,” or burning them. To drown the shrieks of the victims thus inhumanly sacrificed, musical instruments, called in the Hebrew tuph, tympana or timbrels, were played; whence the spot derived the name of Tophet. Ge Hinnom, or “The Valley of Hinnom,” from which the Greeks framed their Gehenna, is sometimes used in Scripture to denote hell or hell fire. See [Hell].