Hanes

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Hanes is associated with Zoan in a difficult context,   Isaiah 30:4 . Some would place it in Lower Egypt, with Anysis in Herodotus, and Khininshi in the annals of Ashurbanipal; but there can be little doubt that it is the Egyptian Hnçs (Heracleopolis Magna) on the west side of the Nile, just south of the Fayyum. Hnçs was apparently the home of the family from which the 22nd Dyn. arose, and the scanty documents of succeeding dynasties show it to have been of great importance: in the 25th and 26th Dyns. ( c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 715 600) the standard silver of Egypt was specifically that of the treasury of Harshafe, the ram-headed god of Hnçs, and during the long reign of Psammetichus i. (c [Note: circa, about.] . 660 610) Hnçs was the centre of government for the whole of Upper Egypt. The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] does not recognize the name of the city, and shows a wide divergence of reading: ‘for there are in Tanis princes, wicked messengers.’

F. Ll. Griffith.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 30:4, the same as Tahpanhes or Daphne, a fortress on the N.E. frontier of Egypt, to which the Jews sent ambassadors with presents for the reigning Pharaoh (perhaps Zet or Sethos of the 23rd dynasty), as also to the neighbouring Zoan his capital. Gesenius, less probably, makes Hanes to be Heracleopolis, W. of the Nile in central Egypt.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

City in Egypt to which the ambassadors of Israel were sent when they trusted in Egypt instead of in Jehovah.  Isaiah 30:4 . It was for long identified with Tahpanhes on the eastern frontier, but is now supposed to be the ancient Heracleopolis Magna, identified with Ahnas el Medeeneh, about seventy miles S.W. of Cairo.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ha'nes. A place in Egypt mentioned only in  Isaiah 30:4. We think that the Chaldean Paraphrased is right in identifying it with Tahpanhes , a fortified town on the eastern frontier.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

A town on the frontiers of Ethiopia. Some have thought it the same as Tahapanes. (See  Isaiah 30:4;  Jeremiah 2:16)

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A city of Egypt,  Isaiah 30:4 , thought to be the modern Ehnes, in middle Egypt on the Nile.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 30:4Zoan

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 30:4

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Hebrew Ch  n Ê s', חָנֵס , doubtless of Egyptian. etymology), a place in Egypt only mentioned in  Isaiah 30:4 : "For his princes were at Zoan, and his messengers came to Hanes." The Septuagint renders the latter clause Καὶ Ἄλλεγοι Αὐτοῦ Πονηροί , "And his ambassadors Worthless." The copy from which this translation was made may have read חנם ייגעי instead of חנס יגיעו ; and it is worthy of note that the reading חנם is still found in a number of ancient MSS..(De Rossi, Varice Lectiones Vet. Test. 3:29), and is approved by Lowth and J. D. Michaelis. The old Latin version follows the Sept., "Nuncii pessimi;" but Jerome translates ‘ from a text similar to our own, rendering the clause as follows: "Et nuncii tui usque ad Hanes pervenerunt" (Sabbatier, Biblior. Sacrorum Latin. Verss., ad loc.). Jerome adds, in his commentary on the verse, "Intelligimus ultimam juxta Ethiopas et Blemmyas esse AEgypti civitatem." Vitringa would identify Hanes with the Anusis ( ῎Ανυσις ) of Herodotus (2, 137; compare Champollion, L'Egypte, 1, 309; Quatremere, Memoires, 1, 500), which he, with Gesenius and others, supposes to be the same as Heracleopolis (City Of Hercules) of Strabo (17, 812), the ruins of which are now called Anacsieh (Edrisi, Afric. p. 512). The Coptic name was Hnes or Ehnes, and it was one of the ancient royal cities of Egypt. Anasieh stands on a high mound some distance west of the Nile, near the parallel of Benisuef. The great objection to this theory is the distance of Anasieh from Zoan, which stood in the eastern-part of the Delta, near the sea. Gesenius remarks, as a kind of apology for the identification of Hanes with Heracleopolis Magna, that the latter was formerly a royal city. It is true that in Manetho's list the 9th and 10th dynasties are said to have been of Heracleopolite kings; but it has lately been suggested, on strong grounds, by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, that this is a mistake in the case of the 9th dynasty for Hermonthites (Rawlinson, Herod. 2, 348). If this supposition' be correct as to the 9th dynasty, it must also be so as to the 10th; but the circumstance of Heracleopolis being a royal city or not, a thousand years before Isaiah's time, is obviously of no consequence here.

The prophecy is a reproof of the Jews for trusting in Egypt; and, according to the Masoretic text, mention is made of an embassy, perhaps from Hoshea, or else from Ahaz, or possibly Hezekiah, to a Pharaoh. As the king whose assistance is asked is called Pharaoh, he is probably not an Ethiopian of the 25th dynasty, for the kings of that line are mentioned by name-So, Tirhakah — but a sovereign of the 23rd dynasty, which, according to Manetho, was of Tanite kings. It is supposed that the last king of the latter dynasty, Manetho's Zet, is the Sethos of Herodotus, the king in whose time Sennacherib's army perished, and who appears to have been mentioned under the title of Pharaoh by Rabshakeh ( Isaiah 36:6;  2 Kings 18:21), though it is just possible that Tirhakah may have been intended. If the reference be to an embassy to Zet, Zoan was probably his capital, and in any case then the most important city of the eastern part of Lower Egypt. Hanes was most probably in its neighborhood; and we are disposed to think that the Chald. Paraphr. is right in identifying it with Tahpanhes ( תִּחְפִּנְחֵס or תְּחִפְנְחֵס , once written, if the Kethib be correct, in the form תִּחְפְּנֵס , Daphnae), a fortified town on the eastern frontier. Grotius considers Hanes a contraction of this name (Commentar. ad loc.). With this may be connected the remark of De Rossi — "Codex meus 380 notat ad Marg. esse תחפנהס  Jeremiah 2:16" (Var. Lect., 1. c.). On the whole, this seems to be the most probable theory, as Tahpanhes was situated in the eastern part of the Delta, and was one of the royal cities about the time of Isaiah. (See Tahpanhes).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hā´nēz ( חנס , ḥānēṣ ): Occurs only in   Isaiah 30:4 . The one question of importance concerning this place is its location. It has never been certainly identified. It was probably an Egyptian city, though even that is not certain. Pharaoh, in his selfish haste to make league with the kingdom of Judah, may have sent his ambassadors far beyond the frontier. The language of Isa, "Their ambassadors came to Hanes," certainly seems to indicate a place in the direction of Jerusalem from Tanis. This indication is also the sum of all the evidence yet available. There is no real knowledge concerning the exact location of Hanes. Opinions on the subject are little more than clever guesses. They rest almost entirely upon etymological grounds, a very precarious foundation when not supported by historical evidence. The Septuagint has, "For there are in Tanis princes, wicked messengers." Evidently knowing no such place, they tried to translate the name. The Aramaic version gives "Tahpanhes" for Hanes, which may have been founded upon exact knowledge, as we shall see.

Hanes has been thought by some commentators to be Heracleopolis Magna, Egyptian Hunensuten , abridged to Hunensu , Copt Ahnes , Hebrew Ḥaneṣ , Arabic Ahneysa , the capital of the 20th Nome, or province, of ancient Egypt. It was a large city on an island between the Nile and the Bahr Yuseph, opposite the modern town of Beni Suef . The Greeks identified the ram-headed god of the place with Heracles, hence, "Heracleopolis." The most important historical notes in Egypt and the best philological arguments point to this city as Hanes. But the plain meaning of   Isaiah 30:4 points more positively to a city somewhere in the delta nearer to Jerusalem than Tanis (compare Naville's cogent argument, "Ahnas el Medineh," 3-4). Dumichen considered the hieroglyphic name of Tahpanhes to be Hens. Knowledge of this as a fact may have influenced the Aramaic rendering, but does not warrant the arbitrary altering of the Hebrew text.

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