HANES
(Haʹnes).
A site mentioned at Isaiah 30:4 in Jehovah’s denunciation of those seeking help from Egypt. (Isa. 30:1-5) Two principal suggestions are advanced as to the location of Hanes. Some scholars would identify it with the place now called Ahnas el-Medina. Here about sixty-nine miles (111 kilometers) S of Cairo, are found the ruins of the ancient Greek city renamed Heracleopolis Magna. Others, however, believe that the parallel expression, “his princes have come to be in Zoan itself, and his own envoys reach even Hanes,” requires a location in the Nile Delta, where Zoan is thought to have been. The Aramaic rendering of Isaiah 30:4 gives “Tahpanhes” in place of “Hanes,” and Tahpanes (Tahpanhes, Tehaphnehes) is in the Delta region.—See TAHPANES, TAHPANHES, TEHAPHNEHES.
There are also various possible meanings given to the text. Some commentators believe the “envoys” are Jewish, sent to obtain Egyptian military aid, and that these arrive at Hanes on such a mission. Others suggest that the envoys are those of Pharaoh (mentioned in the preceding verse) depicted as receiving the Jewish delegation when it reached Hanes. Whatever is the case, Jehovah showed that Egypt would be a vain source of help.—Vs. 5.