HOR ():

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn

• 1. Mountain on the border-land of Idumæa; the next stopping-place after Kadesh of the children of Israel during their wanderings in the wilderness; famous as the scene of Aaron's death (Num. xx. 22 et seq., xxxiii. 37, and elsewhere). Josephus ("Ant." iv. 4, § 7), without giving the name, says that Aaron died on a mountain near Petra; the same topography is indicated by Eusebius ("Onomasticon," s.v. "Or"). This corresponds with the situation of Jabal Harun ("the mountain of Aaron"), a two-peaked mountain on the eastern edge of Wadi al-'Arabah. The double peak may account for the Biblical name "Hor ha-Har" ("a mountain on a mountain"; comp. Rashi to Num. xx. 22).
• 2. Mountain which marked the northern limit of the inheritance of the Israelites in the land of Canaan (Num. xxxiv. 7-8). The line was to be drawn from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor, and thence to Hamath. The term "Hor ha-Har" (Num. l.c.) indicates, probably, some conspicuous mountain, perhaps Mount Hermon. But pseudo-Jonathan renders it, as well as No. 1, by "Ṭawros Umanos"; and the Jerusalem Targum renders it by "Ṭawros Manos" (= "Mount Amanus"), apparently identifying it with the "Amana" of Cant. iv. 8. In the Talmud the northern limit of the Holy Land is Ṭure Amnon (Giṭ. 8a) or Ṭure Amanah (Yer. Sheb. vi. 1), on which mountain there is a place called "Ḳapelaria." According to Estori Farḥi ("Kaftor wa-Feraḥ," ed. Berlin, ii. 42), the Biblical Mount Hor is to be identified with Jabal al-Aḳra', the ancient Mons Casius, between Latakia and Antioch. He supports his contention by identifying several places in the territory of Asher, along the northern frontier, with towns in the neighborhood of Jabal al-Aḳra'. His contention is also supported by the Targum of Jerusalem, which renders the "Hamath" of Num. xxxiv. 8 by "Antioch." Schwarz ("Das Heilige Land," p. 18), refuting Estori's opinion, identifies Mount Hor with the Ras al-Shaḳḳa, on the road from Tripoli to Beirut.

E. G. H. M. Sel.