Rimmon (1) - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

RIMMON (1)

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 20:45,47; 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 1 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; 1 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 (1 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"; 1 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

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'RIMMON (1)'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.