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Bible Lexicons
Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's #2341 - חֲוִילָה
- Brown-Driver-Briggs
- Strong
Havilah = “circle”
1) a part of Eden through which flowed the river Pison (Araxes); was probably the Grecian Colchis, in the northeast corner of Asia Minor, near the Caspian Sea (noun proper locative)
2) a district in Arabia of the Ishmaelites named from the 2nd son of Cush; probably the district of Kualan, in the northwestern part of Yemen (noun proper locative)
3) a son of Cush (noun proper masculine)
4) a son of Joktan (noun proper masculine)
- Book
- Word
soft mud, [ dampsand]) — אֶרֶץ הַחֲוִילָה Genesis 2:11 (surrounded or bordered — סבב — by river Pishon; noted for excellent gold, bdellium and shoham-stone); elsewhere without article חֲוִילָה Genesis 10:7 = 1 Chronicles 1:9 as a 'son' of Cush (between סְבָא and סַבְתָּה); but also as a 'son' of יָקְטָן, a descendant of Shem Genesis 10:29 = 1 Chronicles 1:23 (between אוֺפִיר and יוֺבָב); עַדשֿׁוּר׳מֵח Genesis 25:18 said of limits of Ishmaelitish territory; compare same limits of Amalek 1 Samuel 15:7 (but dubious; We reads טֵילָם, compare 1 Samuel 15:4 and see Dr; Glaser Skizze ii, 326 reads חֲכִילָה as 1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 26:1,3). — Most have supposed several regions named ׳ח to be indicated in these passages: — e.g. Thes.1. Arabian shore of Persian Gulf Genesis 10:29 etc. 2. Ethiopian coast Genesis 10:7 etc. 3. India Genesis 2:11 (regarded as indefinite extension of 1). Di Genesis 10:7 distinguishes 1,2either as quite distinct, or as different settlements of one great people, and (on Genesis 2:14) thinks that ׳כל ארץ ח Genesis 2:11 implies vague extension eastward. Dl Pa 12ff.57ff. identification ׳ח in all passages with northeast part of Syrian desert, so EMey Geschichte. Alterth. i. 224; Glaser Skizze ii. 323ff. with central and northeast Arabia. The question is still undecided.
חֲוִילָה [Havilah], pr.n.
(1) of a district of the Joktanite Arabs (Genesis 10:29), on the eastern borders of the Ishmaelites (Genesis 25:18), and of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:7). Probably the Χαυλοταῖοι of Strabo (xvi. p. 728, Casaub.), dwelling near the Persian gulf, on the shore of which Niebuhr (Arabia p. 342) mentions Chawîla as a town or district (حويلة) Hawilah.
(2) of a district of the Cushites (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9), to be sought for in Ethiopia. I now consider that the Avalitæ are to be understood, who inhabit the shore of the Sinus Avalitis (now Zeila) to the south of the strait of Bab el Mandeb (Plin. vi. 28; Ptolem. iv. 7), Saadiah appears to have formed a similar judgment, since three times in Genesis he gives as the translation of הוילה زويلة = زيلة Zeila.
(3) The first Havilah (No. 1) enables us I believe to discover the situation of the land of Havilah (אֶרֶץ חַחֲוִילָה), Genesis 2:11, abounding in gold, pearls (commonly taken as bdellium), and precious stones, around which flowed the Pishon (Indus?), since Havilah also (Genesis 10:29) is mentioned in connection with countries producing gold; and as being on the Persian gulf, it must be in the neighbourhood of India. Indeed it appears that India is to be understood, as used according to the custom of the ancients to comprehend also Arabia. See Assemani Bibl. Orient. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 568-70. Some erroneously understood it to mean Chwala on the Caspian sea, which in Russian is called Chwalinskoje More.
