Helkath-hazzurim

Plot of the sharp blades, or the field of heroes, (2 Sam. 2:16). After the battle of Gilboa, so fatal to Saul and his house, David, as divinely directed, took up his residence in Hebron, and was there anointed king over Judah. Among the fugitives from Gilboa was Ish-bosheth, the only surviving son of Saul, whom Abner, Saul’s uncle, took across the Jordan to Mahanaim, and there had him proclaimed king. Abner gathered all the forces at his command and marched to Gibeon, with the object of wresting Judah from David. Joab had the command of David’s army of trained men, who encamped on the south of the pool, which was on the east of the hill on which the town of Gibeon was built, while Abner’s army lay on the north of the pool. Abner proposed that the conflict should be decided by twelve young men engaging in personal combat on either side. So fiercely did they encounter each other that “they caught every man his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim.” The combat of the champions was thus indecisive, and there followed a severe general engagement between the two armies, ending in the total rout of the Israelites under Abner. The general result of this battle was that “David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker” (2 Sam. 3:1). (See GIBEON.)

the field of strong men, or of rocks

HEL'KATH-HAZ'ZURIM (field of swords), a place near Gibeon; so called from the deadly combat mentioned in 2 Sam 2:13-17. Drake proposes to place it in the broad, smooth valley el-Askar.

HEL'KATH-HAZ'ZURIM (field of swords), a place near Gibeon; so called from the deadly combat mentioned in 2 Sam 2:13-17. Drake proposes to place it in the broad, smooth valley el-Askar. HELL. The Old Testament.— The Hebrew word for hell is Sheol, which corresponds to the Greek Hades, and means the under-world or the realm of the dead. It is derived by some from the root "to demand" (hence the "grasping" or "insatiable"), by others from the root "to make hollow" (comp. the German Holle with Huble), so as to mean the vast subterranean receptacle and resting-place of the dead. Sheol is variously translated in our English Bible by the terms "hell," "pit," and "grave." In many places it is rightly translated "grave." 1 Sam 2:6; Job 14:13, etc. Sheol is represented as in the depths of the earth, Job 11:8; Prov 9:18, dark, Isa 38:10, all-devouring, Prov 1:12, destitute of God's presence, Ps 88:10-12, a state of forgetfulness, Ps 6:5, insatiable, Isa 5:14, remorseless, Cant. Isa 8:6, and a place of silence, Eccl 9:10. The Hebrew notions about it were vague and indefinite. It was regarded as the place where worldly occupations, good or bad, did not enter. Eccl 9:10; Job 3:13-20. It can by no means be made out that the term refers exclusively or definitely to infernal anguish. But it no less certainly represented terror and repulsiveness to the Hebrew mind. The New Testament. — The two words translated "hell" are Hades and Gehenna. Hades occurs eleven times, and is once rendered "grave," 1 Cor 15:55; in all other places "hell." It evidently does not refer to the ultimate abode of the impenitent and the final state of exclusion from God, but to the disembodied state between death and the final judgment of the Son of man, when he shall come in his glory, Matt 16:27. After the…