Helbon

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Formerly supposed to be Haleb, or as called in Europe, Aleppo, a city of Syria, about one hundred and eighty miles north of Damascus, and about eighty miles north from the Mediterranean Sea. In 1822, Aleppo was visited by a dreadful earthquake, by which it was almost entirely destroyed. Its present population is not half of the 200,000 it then possessed. But recently a valley has been found on the eastern slope of Anti-Lebanon, north of the Barada, called Helbon, from on of its principal villages. Its grapes and the wine made from them are still remarkable for their fine quality. This valley is probably the Helbon of Ezekiel 27:18 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hel'bon. (fertile). A place mentioned only in Ezekiel 27:18. Geographers have, hitherto, represented Helbon as identical with the city of Aleppo, called Haleb, by the Arabs; but there are strong reasons against this, and the ancient city must be identified with a village, within a few miles of Damascus, still bearing the ancient name, Helbon, and still celebrated as producing the finest grapes in the country.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Helbon (hĕl'bŏn), fertile. A Syrian city celebrated for its wine, Ezekiel 27:18, and formerly identified with Aleppo, but later with Halbûn, in a wild glen high up in the Anti-Lebanon. This valley is celebrated for its fine grapes and vineyards. Robinson says "the wine of Halbûn" is the best and most famous wine in the country.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("fat".) "The wine of Helbon and white wool" Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:18) makes Damascus supply to Tyre. Not Aleppo, which is a long overland journey from Damascus, but a village still called Helbon, three hours and a half journey N. of Damascus, high up in a wild glen of Anti-Lebanon; still famed for the finest grapes, also a depot for wool through its trade with the Bedouin shepherds.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HELBON . A place celebrated in old times for the excellence of its wines ( Ezekiel 27:18 ). It is identified with Halbûn , about 12 miles N. of Damascus. Grapes are still grown extensively on the surrounding slopes.

W. Ewing.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Place celebrated for its wine. Ezekiel 27:18 . Identified with Helbon, 33 41' N, 36 13' E . The village is in a wild glen, high up the Anti-Lebanon, and is still celebrated for its luxurious grapes.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Ezekiel 2718

Holman Bible Dictionary

Ezekiel 27:18

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Chelbon', חֶלְבוֹן, feet, i.e. fertile; Sept. Χελβών v.r. Χεβρών ), a name which occurs only in Ezekiel 27:18, where "the wine of Helbon" is named among the commodities brought from Damascus to the great market of Tyre. The Syriac, Symmachus, the Chaldee, and Vulgate, all regard the ‘ word as an appellative descriptive of the quality of the wine as pingue vinuni or vinumu dulce coctum. — But it is better to accept the indication of the Sept., which, by giving the proper name Χελβών, must be supposed to have had in view a place, which has hence generally been inferred to be the same with that old city of Syria that appears under the form of Chalybon (Χαλυβάν ) in Ptolemy (Geog. 5, 15) and Strabo (15, 505). — The latter author mentions this Chalybon as a place famous for wine; and in describing the luxury of the kings of Persia, he says they would have wheat brought from Assos in Eolia, Chalybonian wine out of Syria, and water from the Eulaeus (the river Ulai of Daniel 8:2), which was the lightest of any. Both Hesychius and Plutarch (Vit. Alex. 2) speak of this famous wine. It has generally been 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 Helbon to the marts of Tyre? Why would not the native merchants themselves carry it thither? A passage which Bochart quotes from Athenaeus (1, 51) throws light on this point: "The king of the Persians drank Chalybonian wine alone; which, says Poseidonius, was also produced in Damascus" (Bochart, Opp. 2, 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. Seleucus Nicator is said to have changed the name to Bercea (Niceph. Callist. 14:39); 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. Halebum). The city referred to has usually been identified with the modern Aleppo, a large city of Syria. called Huleb by the Arabs; but Russel states (Natural Hist. of Aleppo Lond. 1794, 1, 80) that but little wine is made there, and that the white wines especially are poor and thin, and difficult to keep; nor has this place ever obtained any celebrity for its vintages.

Hence Prof. Hackett is inclined to adopt the suggestion made to him while visiting this region in 1852 by Dr. Paulding, one of the American missionaries there, that the Biblical Helbon should rather be sought in one of the principal villages of the same name lying in the wady. Helbon, on the eastern slope of Anti-Lebanon, north of the Barrada. He was informed by those who had visited the place that the grapes produced there are remarkable for their fine quality, and that the wine obtained from them is regarded as the choice wine of that part of Syria (Illustrations of Scripture, N. York, 1855, p. 214). Dr. Robinson, to whom he mentioned this suggestion, visited the place in his last journey to Palestine, and fully accords with the identification. He thus describes the valley and town: "Wady Helbon is a valley an hour or more in length, shut in by high and rugged sides. The bottom is a strip of level ground, everywhere well cultivated. Throughout the whole extent of the valley there are well-kept vineyards. Even places so steep that the vinedresser cal approach them with difficulty are made to produce an abundance of grapes. In Damascus the grapes are chiefly esteemed for their fine flavor, and from them is made the best and most highly prized wine of the country. The village of Helbon is nearly midway up the valley. There are many ruins in and around it, but mostly dilapidated; and hewn stones, capitals, friezes, and broken columns are built into the walls of the modem dwellings. On the west of the village is an extensive ruin, supposed to have once been a temple. On some of the blocks are fragments of Greek inscriptions no longer legible" (new ed. of Researches, 3, 471, 472).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hel´bon ( חלבּון , ḥelbōn  ; Χελβών , Chelbō̇n , Χεβρών , Chebrō̇n ): A district from which Tyre received supplies of wine through the Damascus market ( Ezekiel 27:18 ); universally admitted to be the modern Halbun , a village at the head of a fruitful valley of the same name among the chalk slopes on the eastern side of Anti-Lebanon, 13 miles North-Northwest of Damascus, where traces of ancient vineyard terracing still exist. Records contemporary with Ezek mention mat helbunim or the land of Helbon, whence Nebuchadnezzar received wine for sacrificial purposes (Belinno Cylinder, I, 23), while karan hulbunu , or Helbonian wine, is named in Western Asiatic Inscriptions , II, 44. Strabo (xv.735) also tells that the kings of Persia esteemed it highly. The district is still famous for its grapes - the best in the country - but these are mostly made into raisins, since the population is now Moslem. Helbon must not be confounded with Chalybon (Ptol. v.15, 17), the Greek-Roman province of Haleb or Aleppo.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Hel´bon, or Chelbon, a name which occurs only in , where 'the wine of Helbon' is named among the commodities brought to the great market of Tyre. Helbon is supposed to be identified with Chalybon, an old city of Syria, famous for wine.

Now, it is generally agreed that the ancient Chalybon is represented by the modern Aleppo. Aleppo, styled by the natives Haleb, is situated in N. lat. 36° 11′ 25″, E. long. 37° 9′, and is seventy-six miles from the sea by way of Scanderoon, in a straight line, and ninety miles by way of Antioch. It is one of the few ancient cities of these parts which have retained their ancient importance; and this it owes to its happy position upon the line of the commercial intercourse of Asia Minor and Syria with Egypt, and of Europe and Westernmost Asia with the countries beyond the Euphrates. It has long ranked as the capital of Syria, and as the third, if not the second city of the Ottoman Empire. It has suffered dreadfully from earthquakes at different times, and has never recovered the terrible visitation of this kind which it sustained in 1822: the population, which was formerly reckoned above 200,000, is not supposed to reach half that number at present.