Rimmon

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Pomegranate.

(1.) A man of Beeroth (2Sa_4:2), one of the four Gibeonite cities. (See Jos_9:17.)

(2.) A Syrian idol, mentioned only in 2Ki_5:18.

(3.) One of the “uttermost cities” of Judah, afterwards given to Simeon (Jos_15:21, Jos_15:32; Jos_19:7; 1Ch_4:32). In Jos_15:32 Ain and Rimmon are mentioned separately, but in Jos_19:7 and 1Ch_4:32 (compare Neh_11:29) the two words are probably to be combined, as forming together the name of one place, Ain-Rimmon = the spring of the pomegranate. It has been identified with Um er-Rumamin, about 13 miles south-west of Hebron.

(4.) “Rock of,” to which the Benjamites fled (Jdg_20:45, Jdg_20:47; Jdg_21:13), and where they maintained themselves for four months after the fearful battle at Gibeah, in which they were almost exterminated, 600 only surviving out of about 27,000. It is the present village of Rummon, “on the very edge of the hill country, with a precipitous descent toward the Jordan valley,” supposed to be the site of Ai.

Rimmon (1)

rim´on:

(1) The rock Rimmon (סלע רמון, ṣela‛ rimmōn; ἡ πέτρα Ῥεμμών, hē pétra Rhemmṓn):

The place of refuge of the 600 surviving Benjamites of Gibeah (Jeba‛) who “turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months” (Jdg_20:45, Jdg_20:47; Jdg_21:13). Robinson's identification (RB, I, 440) has been very generally accepted. He found a conical and very prominent hill some 6 miles North-Northeast of Jeba‛ upon which stands a village called Rummōn. This site was known to Eusebius and Jerome (OS 146 6; 287 98), who describe it as 15 Roman miles from Jerusalem. Another view, which would locate the place of refuge of the Benjamites in the Mughāret el jai, a large cavern on the south of the Wâdy Suweinît, near Jeba‛, is strongly advocated by Rawnsley and Birch (see PEF, III, 137-48). The latter connects this again with 1Sa_14:2, where Saul, accompanied by his 600, “abode in the uttermost part of Gibeah” under the pomegranate tree (Rimmon).

(2) (רמּון, rimmōn; Ἐρεμμών, Eremmṓn, or Ῥεμμώθ, Rhemmṓth): A city in the Negeb, near the border of Edom, ascribed to Judah (Jos_15:32) and to Simeon (Jos_19:7; 1Ch_4:32, the King James Version “Remmon”). In Zec_14:10 it is mentioned as the extreme South of Judah - “from Geba to Rimmon, South of Jerusalem.” In the earlier references Rimmon occurs in close association with ‛Ain (a spring), and in Neh_11:29, what is apparently the same place, ‛Ain rimmon, is called En-rimmon (which see).

(3) (רמּון, rimmōn (Jos_19:13), רמונה, rimmōnāh, in some Hebrew manuscripts דּמנה, dimāh (see Dimnah) (Jos_21:35), and רמּונו, rimmōnō (1Ch_6:77)): In the King James Version we have “Remmon-methoar” in Jos_19:13, but the Revised Version (British and American) translates the latter as “which stretcheth.” This was a city on the border of Zebulun (Jos_19:13) allotted to the Levites (Jos_21:35, “Dimnah”; 1Ch_6:77). The site is now the little village of Rummāneh on a low ridge South of the western end of the marshy plain el Baṭṭauf in Galilee; there are many rock-cut tombs and cisterns. It is about 4 miles North of el Mesh-hed, usually considered to be the site of Gath-hepher. See PEF, I, 363, Sh VI.

Rimmon (2)

(רמּון, rimmōn, “pomegranate”; see Rimmon-Perez):

(1) A Syrian god. Naaman the Syrian leper after being cured is troubled over the fact that he will still have to bow down in the house of the Syrian god, Rimmon, when his master goes into the house to worship leaning on his hand (2Ki_5:18). Elisha answers him ambiguously: “Go in peace.” Judging from Naaman's position and this incident, Rimmon must have been one of the leading gods of the Syrians worshipped in Damascus. He has been identified with Rammanu, the Assyrian god of wind, rain and storm. The name appears in the Syrian personal names Hadadrimmon and Tabrimmon (which see) and its meaning is dubious (ramâmu, “to thunder” (?))

(2) A Benjamite of Beeroth, whose sons Baanah and Rechab assassinated Ish-bosheth (2Sa_4:2, 2Sa_4:5, 2Sa_4:9).