Rimmon
Pomegranate. (1.) A man of Beeroth (2 Sam 4:2), one of the four Gibeonite cities. (See Josh 9:17.)
(2.) A Syrian idol, mentioned only in 2 Kgs 5:18.
(3.) One of the “uttermost cities” of Judah, afterwards given to Simeon (Josh 15:21, Josh 15:32; Josh 19:7; 1 Chr 4:32). In Josh 15:32 Ain and Rimmon are mentioned separately, but in Josh 19:7 and 1 Chr 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, Judg 20:47; Judg 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.
Named in the Bible
11 verses
- Joshua 15:32 And Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty and nine, with their villages:
- Judges 20:45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
- Judges 20:47 But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
- Judges 21:13 And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
- 2 Samuel 4:2 And Saul's son had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin: (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin:
- 2 Samuel 4:5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.
- 2 Samuel 4:9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,
- 2 Kings 5:18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
- 1 Chronicles 4:32 And their villages were, Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities:
- 1 Chronicles 6:77 Unto the rest of the children of Merari were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmon with her suburbs, Tabor with her suburbs:
- Zechariah 14:10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
