IR-HA-HERES, transliteration of Heb. עִ֣יר הַהֶ֔רֶס, lit. city of the Sun.
1. OT references. These exact words do not occur in the OT although in Isaiah 19:18 where the reading of the MT is עִ֣יר הַהֶ֔רֶס (city of destruction, KJV) we should prob. read עִ֣יר הַחֶ֔רֶס. This is supported by several MSS as well as Symm. and the Vul., and also by the context of the v. The whole of Isaiah 19 is concerned with Egypt and the judgment which will befall her despite her counselors, but the cities of Egypt will turn to Yahweh and swear allegiance to Him.
One of these is called “the City of the Sun,” i.e. Heliopolis. Strictly, there is textual evidence both for “city of destruction” and “city of the sun.” However, the noun heres may be due to a scribal alteration (common enough in the OT) which was made to eliminate any reference to the sun. Elsewhere in the OT Heliopolis is referred to as אֹ֖ן (Gen 41:45, 50; 46:20) or as בֵּ֣ית שֶׁ֔מֶשׁ (Jer 43:13). One passage in Amos (1:5) referring to Beth Aven (KJV) is prob. a reference to Bēth’ôn a center of sun worship in Syria, possibly Baalbek. However, the main references here are to Heliopolis in Egypt, capital of the thirteenth nome of Lower Egypt in the Nile Delta ten m. NE of modern Cairo. It is marked today by the ruins at Tell Hisn and Matariyeh. The ancient Egyptians called the city ’Iwnw, city of the pillar. This appears in Heb. as אָוֶן (or Aven), in Middle Babylonian cuneiform as Anu, and late Assyrian as Unu.
2. History of the site. In ancient times it was a center of Egyp. sun worship where the solar deities of Rē’ and Atum were honored. The Pharaohs from the fifth dynasty onward (25th cent. b.c.) were known as “Son of Re” and the priests of On, or Heliopolis, were comparable in status and wealth to those of Ptah in Memphis or Amun at Thebes during the period 1600-1100 b.c., the period of Israel’s origins from the years preceding the Exodus to the days of the Judges. There is little evidence of serious occupation after the twenty-sixth dynasty (663-525 b.c.). Strabo the geographer states that Cambyses (q.v.) the Pers. conqueror destroyed the city.
3. The theology and religious symbols of Heliopolis. The basic form of the doctrines of Heliopolis goes back to the third dynasty (26th cent. b.c.). The chief god was Atum who was combined with Rē’ into Atum-Rē’ the sun god who stood at the head of the nine gods Shu (atmosphere), Tefnut (moisture), Geb (earth), Nut (sky), Isis, Osiris, Seth and Nephthys. The priests of Memphis adopted the same system but regarded Ptah as the central figure. At Heliopolis various objects of veneration were found such as the steer god (Mnevis), the stone symbol known as the benben, a tall, tapering monolith, square or rectangular in section, ending at the top in a pyramidal-shaped point, the forerunner of the obelisk; the phoenix, symbol of the birth of Atum; and the iwn pillar, from which the city prob. took its name.
4. Heliopolis and the Bible. The first reference in the OT is to On (Gen 41:45, 50; 46:20). Joseph, the chief minister of Pharaoh, was given Asenath the daughter of Potiphera “priest of On” as his wife. The name Potiphera contains the element Rē in the final syllable. About a thousand years later Jeremiah (43:13) declared that Nebuchadnezzar would break down the pillars (Heb. מַצְּבﯴת׃֙) of Beth Shemesh (house of the Sun), a reference to the obelisks of On (Heliopolis). If the reference in Isaiah 19:18 be allowed we have a further reference to On. Some writers regard Isaiah 19 as due to later editing, in which case this would be postexilic. In a passage dealing with judgment in Egypt Aven (Ezek 30:17, KJV) may well be a reference to On, ’ôn, which has become ’awen “trouble,” “wickedness” because of a play on words, “The young men of wickedness (or ’ôn) shall fall by the sword.”
5. Archeological discovery. Sir Flinders Petrie did some excavation at the site about the beginning of the first world war. The remains of a temple of Aton-Re-Harakhte and an obelisk of Sesostris I (twelfth dynasty) are among the most important items he discovered. There is little or no trace of occupation after about 525 b.c. An unusual earth wall identified by Petrie as Hyksos is now regarded as the retaining wall for an ancient mound of sand upon which the benben stood, symbolizing the site where Atum stood when he emerged from the waters of chaos. See Heliopolis
Bibliography' W. F. F. Petrie, Heliopolis, Kafr Ammar and Shurafa (1915), 1-7; T. O. Lambden, “Heliopolis,” IDB, II, 579, 580.