Rimmon
Description
An inaccessible, rocky natural fortress [Judg 20:45 -47; Judg 21:13 ] between Gibeon and the Jordan Valley. Here, 600 Benjamite men hid for four months to escape extermination, which befell Gibeon. Today's village of Rammūn, 5 km east of Bethel, recalls this place. R. Beerothite, father of Baanah and Rechab from the tribe of Benjamin [2Sam 4:2 , 5, 9], who murdered Ish-bosheth. A place in the tribe of Zebulun, allocated to the Levites of the Merari clan [1Chr 6:77 ]. It may be identical to the place serving Damnah [Josh 21:35 , cf. 19:13]. Researchers believe that the village of Rummāneh, about 10 km northwest of Nazareth, marks the site of the old R. The name of a Syrian deity [Akkadian rammān = thunder lord], whose sanctuary was in Damascus. According to [2Kgs 5:18 ], the Syrian king and his commander Naaman worshipped it. In Assyria, this deity was among the 12 great deities; it had dominion over rain and storms, thunder, and lightning. It was identical to Adad, the supreme Syrian deity. *Adad-rimmon [Zech 12:11 ].
Biblical Dictionary by Adolf Novotný
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Rimmon
pomegranate.
(1.) A man of Beeroth (2Sam 4:2 ), one of the four Gibeonite cities. [See (Josh 9:17 )].
(2.) A Syrian idol, mentioned only in (2Kings 5:18).
(3.) One of the "uttermost cities" of Judah, afterwards given to Simeon (Josh 15:21 ; 15:32; 19:7; 1Chr 4:32 ). In (Josh 15:32 ) Ain and Rimmon are mentioned separately, but in (Josh 19:7 ) and (1Chr 4:32 ) [comp. (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 (Judg 20:45 ; 20:47; 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.
EBD - Easton's Bible Dictionary