HILL, HILL-COUNTRY . These terms in RV [Note: Revised Version.] represent Heb. ( gib’ah, har ) and Greek names for either an isolated eminence, or a table-land, or a mountain-range, or a mountainous district. Gib’ah denotes properly ‘the large rounded hills, mostly bare or nearly so, so conspicuous in parts of Palestine, especially in Judah.’ Cf. ‘Gibeah of Saul,’ ‘of Phinehas,’ ‘of the foreskins,’ ‘of Moreh,’ ‘of Hachilah,’ ‘of Ammah,’ ‘of Gareb,’ and ‘of Elohim.’ har is to gib’ah as the genus is to the species, and includes not merely a single mound, but also a range or a district. It is usually applied to Zion. It is especially the description of the central mountainous tract of Palestine reaching from the plain of Jezreel on the N. to the Negeb or dry country in the S.; the Shephçlah or lowlands of the S. W.; the midbar or moorland, and the ’arabah or steppes of the S. E. The best-known har or hill-country in Palestine is the ‘hill-country of Ephraim,’ but besides this we hear of the ‘hill-country of Judah’ ( e.g. in Joshua 11:21 ), the ‘hill-country of Naphtali’ ( Joshua 20:7 ), the ‘hill-country of Ammon’ ( Deuteronomy 2:37 ), and of Gilead ( Deuteronomy 3:12 ). Among the eminences of Palestine as distinct from hill-districts are Zion, the hill of Samaria, the triple-peaked Hermon, Tabor, and Carmel.
W. F. Cobb.