What is…
Helbon

Hebrew: חֶלְבּוֹן —transliteration: Chelbon or Helbon —meaning: fat; fruitful; i.e., fertile

Damascus was your customer because of the abundance of your goods, because of the abundance of all kinds of wealth, because of the wine of Helbon and white wool. —Ezekiel 27:18 NASB

This is an ancient place where wine was brought to the great market in Tyre.

Helbon is a village in the Anti-Lebanon mountains, about 10–13 miles (16–21 km) north-northwest of Damascus in modern Syria. The site is still called Halbon (aka Halboun, Halbun, Helbun, and Helbon).

It sits in a narrow, fertile valley on the eastern slopes of the range. The name and the location have been accepted by virtually all modern Bible atlases and dictionaries. Traces of ancient vineyard terraces are still visible, and the area remains known for high-quality grapes (now mostly dried as raisins).

A Babylonian text of Nebuchadnezzar II mentions wine from “the land of Helbon” used in their pagan temple offerings.

Assyrian inscriptions speak of karan hulbunu (“Helbonian wine”).

The Greek geographer Strabo notes that Persian kings especially prized this Syrian wine.

Helbon is not Aleppo, Syria (Arabic: Halab), which lies much farther north. The two names look similar in English but refer to different places.

That is why the Genesis Apocryphon from the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls could substitute “Helbon” for the obscure “Hobah” of Genesis 14:15: both names point to the same general district north of Damascus, and Helbon was the better-known locality.