HEBER ri;1.71; Sept. XaPlp), a descendant of Ilobab, son of Jethro, and brother of the wife of Moses. His wife was the Jael who slew Sisera, and he is called Heber the Kenite (judg. iv. t, 17 ; v. 24), which seems to have been a name for the whole family (Judg. 16). Heber appears to have lived separate from the rest of the Kenites, leading a patriarchal life, amid his tents and flocks. He must have been a person of some consequence, from its being stated that there was peace between the house of Heber and the powerful king Jabin. At the time the history bnngs him under our notice his camp was in the plain of Zaanaim, near Kedesh in Naphtali. [JAEL ; KENITES.] [Five other persons of this name are mentioned in the O. T., viz., A grandson of Asher (Gen. xlvi. 17 ; Num. xxvi. 45 ; Chron. vii, 31, Xo(36p and Xopep); one of the tribe of Judah (I Chron. iv. IS, '.A134) ; one of the children of Gad (v. 13, 'Opals) ; a .Benjamite (viii. 17, 'Afidp) ; another Benjamite 22, 12phs).] HEBREW (901q), T(3 paios), a designation of the people of Israel, used first of their progenitor Abraham (Gen. xiv. 13 ; LXX. -rcP rydry). This name is never in Scripture applied to the Israelites except when the speaker is a foreigner (Gen. XXX1X. 14, 17 ; XII. 12 ; Exod.. i. 16 ; 6 ; I Sam. iv. 6, 9, etc.), or when Israelites speak of themselves to one of another nation (Gen. xl. 15 ; Exod. 9 ; Jonah i. 9, etc.),_or when they are contrasted with other peoples (Lien. 'dia. 32; Exocl. L 3, 7, 15 , Deut. xv. 12 ; I Sam. xiii. 3, -7).* By the Greek and Latin writers this is the name by which the descendants of Jacob are designated when they are not called Jews (Pausan, v. 5, ; ‘i. 24, 6 ; Plut. Symps. iv. 6, ; Tacit. Hirt. v. 1) ; and Jose phus, who affects classical peculiarities, constantly uses it. On these facts two opposing hypotheses have been raised ; the one that Israelite or Jew was the name by which the nation designated itself (just as the Welsh call themselves Cymry, though in speaking of themselves to a Saxon they would probably use the name Welsh); the other is that Hebrew' is a national name, merely indicative of the people as a people, while Israelite is a sacred or religious name appropriate to them as the chosen people of God. This latter opinion Gese nius dismisses as without foundation' (Lexicon by Robinson, s.v.) ; but it has received the deliberate sanction of Ewald Pusjilhrl. Lehrb. der Lfeb. Spr., p. IS, 5th ed.) According to the sacred writer, +ix), Hebrew, is a derivative from -my, 'Eber, the ancestor of Abra ham ; at least the same persons who are called Hebrews are called 133,7 B'nty 'Eber, sons of 'Eber (Gen. x. 21) ; and 1Z1/ 'Eber (Num. xxiv.
24) ; and this is tantamount to a derivation of the name Hebrew from 'Eber. In support of this, it may be urged that +imp is the proper form which a patronymic from -131/ would assume ; according to the analogy of 4ZN1n, a Moabite, 4r1 a Danite, 41Z a Calebite, etc. (Hiller, Onamast. Sae. c. xiv., p. 231 ff.) What adds much force to this argu ment is the evident antithesis in Gen. xiv. 13, be tween 1-133/71 lo-ON and +-owl NiC1) ; the former of these is as evidently a patronymic as the latter. The objections to this etymology are of little weight. Theodoret (Quasi. in Gen. 61) urges against it that the Hebrews were not the only de scendants of 'Eber, and, therefore, could not appro priate his name ; and the objection has been often repeated. To meet it recourse has been had to the suggestion, first adduced, We believe, by Ibn Ezra (Comment. ad Yon. 9) that the descendants of Abraham retained the name Hebrew from 'Eber, because they alone of his descendants retained the faith which Ile held. This may be ; but we are hardly entitled to assume it in order to account for the fact before us. It is better to throw the onus probandi on the objector, and to demand of him, in our ignorance of what determined the use of such' patronymics in one line of descent and not in others, that he should show cause why it is incon ceivable that Abraham might have a good and suffi cient reason for wishing to perpetuate the memory of his descent from 'Eber, which did not apply to the other descendants of that patriarch. Why might not one race of the descendants of 'Eber call them selves by pre-eminence sons of 'Eber, just as one mce of the descendants of Abraham called them selves by pre-eminence sons of Abraham. But 'Eber, it is objected, is a name of no note in the his tory ; we know nothing of him to entitle him to be selected as the person after whom a people should call themselves. But is our ignorance to be the measure of the knowledge of Abmham and his descendants on such a point ? Because we know nothing to distinguish 'Eber, does it follow that they knew nothing ? Certain it is that he was of sufficient importance to reflect a glory on his father Shem, whose highest designation is the father of all the children of 'Eber' (Gen. x. 21) ; and certain it is that his name lingered for many generations in the region where he resided, for it was as "Eber' that the Mesopotamian prophet knew the descendants of Jacob, and spoke of them when they first made their appearance in warlike force on the borders of the promised land (Num. xxiv. 24). These considerations mise a strong presumption against the objection, to say the least.