Hena

HENA (hēn'a, Heb. hēna‘). A city on the south bank of the Euphrates, about 180 miles (300 km.) NW of ancient Babylon. It was mentioned by Rabshakeh, along with four other cities whose gods could not save them from destruction by Sennacherib, as a proof that the Lord could not save Jerusalem (2Kgs.18.34; 2Kgs.19.13; Isa.37.13).

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HENA hĕn’ ə (הֵנַ֣ע). One of six cities whose gods did not save them from the armies of Sennacherib, as boasted by Rabshakeh (2 Kings 18:34). The city is mentioned again in 2 Kings 19:13 and Isaiah 37:13, where the kings of five cities are held in ridicule. In both passages, the design of Rabshakeh was to shake Hezekiah’s confidence in the Lord as the armies of Sennacherib gathered before Jerusalem. The location is unknown.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

Named in 2Ki 19:13, as one of the cities destroyed by Sennacherib along with Sepharvaim. It does not appear in a similar connection in 17:24. The text is probably corrupt. No reasonable identification has been proposed. Cheyne (Encyclopaedia Biblica, under the word) says of the phrase "Hena and Ivah" that "underlying this is a witty editorial suggestion that the existence of cities called h-n-` and `-w-h respectively has passed out of mind (compare Ps 9:6 (7)), for hena` we`iwwah, clearly means `he has driven away and overturned’ (so Targum, Symmachus)." He would drop out h-n-`. Hommel (Expositors Times, IX, 330) thinks that here we have divine names; Hena standing for the Arabic star-name al-han`a, and Ivvah for al-`awwa’u.

See Ivah.