HILL, HILL-COUNTRY.These terms in RV [Note: Revised Version.] represent Heb. (gibah, har) and Greek names for either an isolated eminence, or a table-land, or a mountain-range, or a mountainous district. Gibah denotes properly the large rounded hills, mostly bare or nearly so, so conspicuous in parts of Palestine, especially in Judah. Cf. Gibeah of Saul, of Phinehas, of the foreskins, of Moreh, of Hachilah, of Ammah, of Gareb, and of Elohim. har is to gibah as the genus is to the species, and includes not merely a single mound, but also a range or a district. It is usually applied to Zion. It is especially the description of the central mountainous tract of Palestine reaching from the plain of Jezreel on the N. to the Negeb or dry country in the S.; the Shephçlah or lowlands of the S. W.; the midbar or moorland, and the arabah or steppes of the S. E. The best-known haror hill-country in Palestine is the hill-country of Ephraim, but besides this we hear of the hill-country of Judah (e.g. in Jos_11:21), the hill-country of Naphtali (Jos_20:7), the hill-country of Ammon (Deu_2:37), and of Gilead (Deu_3:12). Among the eminences of Palestine as distinct from hill-districts are Zion, the hill of Samaria, the triple-peaked Hermon, Tabor, and Carmel.
W. F. Cobb.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909