Heres
He'res part of the name of two places, different in the Hebrew. SEE KIR-HERES; SEE TIMNATH-HERES.
1. HAR-CHARES (הִראּחֶרֶס mountain of the sun; Sept. τρος τὸ ὀσρακώδης,Vulg. mons Hares, quod interpretatur testateceues, i.e. of tiles; Auth. Vers. "mount Heres"), a city (in the valley, according to the text, but in a part of Mt. Ephraim, according to the name) of Dan, near Aijalon, of which the Amorites retained possession (Jg 1:35). It was probably situated on some eminence bordering the present Merj Ibn- Omeir on the east, possibly near the site of Emmaus or Nicopolis. We may even hazard the conjecture that it was identical with Mt. Jearim (q.d. Ir- Shemesh, i.e. sun-city), i.e. Chesalon (q.v.).
2. IR HA-HIERE (עַיר הִהֶרֶס, city of destruction; Sept. πόλις ἀσεδεκ v.r. αχερἐς; Vulg. civitas solis, evidently reading עַיר הִחֶרֶס, city of the sun), a name that occurs only in the disputed passage Isa 19:18, where most MSS. and editions, as also the versions of Aquila, Theodotion, the Syriac, and the English, read, one (of these five cities) shall be called The city of destruction, i.e. in the idiom of Isaiah, one of these cities shall be destroyed, a signification (from הָרִס, to tear down) for which Iken (Dissert. phil. crit. 16) contends. The Jews of Palestine, who approved this reading, referred it to Leontopolis and its temple, which they abhorred, and the destruction of which they supposed to be here predicted. But instead of הֶרֶס her, heres, the more probable reading is חֶרֶס, cheres, which is read in sixteen MSS. and some editions, and is expressed by the Sept. (Complut.), Symmachus, Vulgate, Saadias, and the margin of the English version, and has also the testimony of the Talmudists (Menachoth, fol. 11.0, A.). If we follow the certain and ascertained usus loquendi, this latter denotes city of the sun, i.e. Helieopolis in Egypt, elsewhere called Beth- Shemnesh, and On The Arabic meaning of the term is to defend, to preserve, and the passage may be rendered, one shall be called A city preserved, i.e. one of those five cities shall be preserved. (See Gesenius, Comment. ad loc.) Whichever interpretation may be chosen, this reading is to be preferred to the other. SEE IR-HA-IEETRES.
