The meaning of Rimmon (1) in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
rim'-on:
(1) The rock Rimmon (cela' rimmon; he petra Rhemmon): 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" (Judges 20:45, Judges 20:47; Judges 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 Rummon. 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 Mugharet el jai, a large cavern on the south of the Wady Suweinit, near Jeba', is strongly advocated by Rawnsley and Birch (see PEF, III, 137-48). The latter connects this again with I Samuel 14:2, where Saul, accompanied by his 600, "abode in the uttermost part of Gibeah" under the pomegranate tree (Rimmon).
(2) (rimmon; Eremmon, or Rhemmoth): A city in the Negeb, near the border of Edom, ascribed to Judah (Joshua 15:32) and to Simeon (Joshua 19:7; I Chronicles 4:32, the King James Version "Remmon"). In Zechariah 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 Nehemiah 11:29, what is apparently the same place, 'Ain Rimmon, is called En-rimmon (which see).
(3) (rimmon (Joshua 19:13), rimmonah, in some Hebrew manuscripts dimah (see DIMNAH) (Joshua 21:35), and rimmono (I Chronicles 6:77)): In the King James Version we have "Remmon-methoar" in Joshua 19:13, but the Revised Version (British and American) translates the latter as "which stretcheth." This was a city on the border of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13) allotted to the Levites (Joshua 21:35, "Dimnah"; I Chronicles 6:77). The site is now the little village of Rummaneh on a low ridge South of the western end of the marshy plain el Battauf 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.
E. W. G. Masterman
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