Rimmon(remmon, remmon methoar)
“Pomegranate; or thunderer (as deity)”
Summary
Rimmon is the name of several persons and places in Scripture, and was also the Syrian god whose temple Naaman asked permission to enter.
☩The Syrian Deity
Rimmon was the Syrian god worshipped at Damascus, whose temple Naaman entered when attending his master the king of Syria. After being healed of leprosy by Elisha, Naaman acknowledged Jehovah as the only true God but requested pardon for continuing to bow in Rimmon's temple as part of his official duties. Rimmon was a storm god, equivalent to the Assyrian Ramman or Hadad, worshipped as the giver of rain and fertility. His name may mean 'thunderer' or be related to the Hebrew word for pomegranate.
☩Persons Named Rimmon
A Benjamite of Beeroth named Rimmon was the father of Baanah and Rechab, the two captains who treacherously murdered Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, and brought his head to David. Expecting a reward, they were instead executed by David, who abhorred their crime against the Lord's anointed. Their hands and feet were cut off, and their bodies hung by the pool of Hebron as a public warning.
☩Places Named Rimmon
Several towns bore the name Rimmon. One was in the territory of Judah, later assigned to Simeon, identified with modern Umm er-Ramamin about nine miles north of Beersheba. Another Rimmon was a Levitical city in Zebulun, possibly the same as 'Remmon-methoar' mentioned in Joshua. The 'rock of Rimmon' was a distinctive rocky height in Benjamin where six hundred surviving Benjamites took refuge after the near-extermination of their tribe. Rimmon-perez was a station in the wilderness wanderings of Israel.
Related Verses20 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Rimmon," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IX (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Rimmon," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Rimmon," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).