Helbon

HELBON (hĕl'bŏn, fertile). A city of northern Syria, celebrated in ancient times for its wine (Ezek.27.18). Some think that a village in Anti-Lebanon about thirteen miles (thirty-two km.) NW of Damascus is intended.

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HELBON hĕl’ bŏn (חֶלְבֹּ֖ון, hel bōn). A city mentioned in the lamentation over Tyre by Ezekiel (Ezek 27:18). From here wine was imported to Tyre by traders of Damascus. It is identified with modern Halbun, thirteen m. N of Damascus. The area has been famous from ancient times for its fine wines, preferred even by the kings (Strabo XV. 735).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A district from which Tyre received supplies of wine through the Damascus market (Eze 27:18); universally admitted to be the modern Halbun, a village at the head of a fruitful valley of the same name among the chalk slopes on the eastern side of Anti-Lebanon, 13 miles North-Northwest of Damascus, where traces of ancient vineyard terracing still exist. Records contemporary with Eze mention mat helbunim or the land of Helbon, whence Nebuchadnezzar received wine for sacrificial purposes (Belinno Cylinder, I, 23), while karan hulbunu, or Helbonian wine, is named in Western Asiatic Inscriptions, II, 44. Strabo (xv.735) also tells that the kings of Persia esteemed it highly. The district is still famous for its grapes--the best in the country--but these are mostly made into raisins, since the population is now Moslem. Helbon must not be confounded with Chalybon (Ptol. v.15, 17), the Greek-Roman province of Haleb or Aleppo.