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Bible Dictionaries
Ir-ha-Heres
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or "The city of destruction" (Isaiah 19:18). Smitten with "terror" at Jehovah's judgments, Egypt shall be converted to Him. "Five cities shall speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts." Some think the five are Heliopolis, Leontopolis, Migdol, Daphne (Tahpanhes), and Memphis. Leontopolis is perhaps "the city of destruction," so-called in disparagement, because here Onias, who had failed to get the high priesthood at Jerusalem, built a temple in rivalry of that at Jerusalem which was the only lawful one. Onias read "city of the sun" (ha-heres ), i.e. On or Heliopolis, in the nome (prefecture) of which he persuaded Ptolemy Philometer (149 B.C.) to let him build the temple, in order to tempt the Jews to reside there. He alleged that this site was foreappointed by Isaiah's prophecy 600 years before.
So 16 manuscripts, also Vulgate. The conversion (through the Jewish settlement in Egypt and the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament) of many Ethiopians to the God of the Jews (Acts 2:6; Acts 2:10-11), e.g. Queen Candace's chamberlain whom Philip met on his return from worshipping at Jerusalem, is an earnest of a fuller conversion to come (Zephaniah 3:9; Zechariah 14:9; Revelation 7:9). The "altar" and "pillar" foretold (Isaiah 19:19-20) are memorial and spiritual (Joshua 22:22-26; Genesis 28:18; Malachi 1:11); for one only sacrificial altar was lawful, namely, that at Jerusalem. Alexander the Great, the temporal "saviour" of Egypt from the Persians, was a type of the true Saviour. Onion, a Jewish city in Egypt, is supposed in Smith's Bible Dictionary to be "the city of destruction"; its destruction by Titus being thus foretold.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Ir-ha-Heres'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/i/ir-ha-heres.html. 1949.
