Bible Dictionary
Hills
The biblical term translated “hills” may refer either to rounded hills or to a broad elevated country. In particular, it can describe the hill country of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.
Definition
The biblical term translated “hills” may refer to rounded hills or to a broad elevated district. In particular, it can describe the hill country of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, rather than a single eminence.
Biblical Usage
References to the “country of the hills” describe the elevated region of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. In other passages the same underlying term is more accurately rendered “mount” or “mountain.”
Historical Background
Gibeah denotes a curved or rounded hill, whereas har has the broader sense of a mountain range or elevated country. The distinction explains why some English translations use “hill” where the context refers to an extensive mountainous district.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
From the Hebrew Gibeah, meaning a curved round hill. But our translators have also employed the same English word for the very different term har, which has a much more extended sense than gibeah, meaning a whole district. For instance, in (Exodus 24:4) the “hill” is the same which is elsewhere in the same chapter, vs. (Exodus 24:12,13,18) etc., and book consistently and accurately rendered “mount” and “mountain.” The “country of the hills,” in (1:7; Joshua 9:1; 10:40; 11:16) is the elevated district of Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim, which is correctly called “the mountain” in the earliest descriptions of Palestine, (Numbers 13:29) and in many subsequent passages.