HELBON (fiAl ; XOttitto). The prophet Ezekiel, in describing the tithes and splendour of Tyre, represents that city as the centre of the world's commerce. All other great cities and countries traded in her marts ; each bringing its own staple produce or manufactures. Among these Damascus is enumerated. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches ; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool' (Ezek. xxvii. IS).
Jerome thought )12;11 was an adjective (from fatness') qualifying )1+ ; and accordingly in the Vulgate he translates the clause in vino fingui. But all the best authorities are against him, and make Helbon the name of the place where the wine was produced. So it is rendered in the Septuagint ottros xexpt.ip (the Alex. reads Xeppoiv), and in the old Latin vinum ex Chelbon (Sabatier, kc.) Hitherto sacred geographers have identified Helbon with the city of Aleppo, called by the 5 Ambs Haled, The original name of this city, according to Greek orthography, was Chaly bon (XaXtlffikv, a corruption of the Arabic) ; and the province attached to it was termed Chaly bonitis (Ptolemy, v. 15). Seleucus Nicator is said to have changed the name to Beroea (Niceph. Cal list. xiv. 39 ; Winer, R. TV., s. v.) But the old name, as we see from Ptolemy, was not forgotten ; and on the capture of the city by the Arabs in the 7th century, it was again resumed (Schultens, Index Geogr. in vitam Saladini, s.v. Halebunz).
Chalybonian wine is several times mentioned by classic authors. Strabo tells us the Persian kings imported Chalybonian wine from Syria (xv. 3). Both Hesychius and Plutarch (Vit. Alex. ii.) speak of this famous wine. It has been generally thought that the name was derived from Chalybon, where it was supposed the wine was produced. But is it not strange that Damascus should be represented as supplying the wine of Aleppo to the marts of Tyre 7 Why would not the native merchants them selves carry it thither ? A passage which Bochart quotes from Athenmus (i. 51) throws light on this
point-6 Ilepauiv fiao-/Ne6s XaXv8cInnop uovov any bru,Ep. OWL Iloaaditnos Kay Actaatrxe? .ri3s Zuplar yivetaat. The king of the Persians drank Chalybonian wine alone ; which, says Poseido nius, war also firoduced in Damascus' (Bochart, opp. ii. 486). We are thus led, both by the statement of Ezekiel, and by that of Poseidonius, who was himself a native of Syria, to look for a Helbon, or Chalybon, at or near Damascus.
On the eastem slope of Antilebanon, about ten miles north of Damascus, is the village of Helbon, situated in a wild and beautiful glen, the sides of which are still clothed with vineyards. The pre sent inhabitants are all Muslems, and of course make no wine ; but the vintners of Damascus regard the grapes of Helbon as the best in this part of Syria. In and around the village are many remains of ancient wealth and splendour, ruins of temples, fragments of Greek inscriptions, and rock-hewn tombs. The Arabic name uesi—s- is identical with the Hebrew ; and there can not be a doubt that this is the long-lost Helbon (Porter, Damascus, ii. 33o, sq. ; see also Robin son, B. R. iii. 472). How accurate were the descriptions of the Hebrew prophet Damascus was thy merchant . . . in the wine of Helbon, and white wool'—wine from the luxuriant vintage of that romantic glen on the neighbouring moun tain side, and wool from the flocks that roam over the vast plains to the eastward !—J. L. P.
HELDAI 0:6n; Sept. XoX.Ola; Alex. XoX3at).
1. The Netopfinthite,' one of the captains, the twelfth, of the monthly courses in the temple ser vice (1 Chron. xxvii. 15). 2. An Israelite from whom Zechariah ',vas commanded to take materials for making memorial crowns (Zech. vi. to) for Joshua the high- priest. Heldai and his com panions seem to have been a deputation from Babylon sent with contributions to aid the work in which their people were engaged.—W. L. A.