Bible Dictionary
Rimmon
Rimmon can refer to a man, a Syrian deity, or several places. The deity was worshiped at Damascus; other references identify towns in Judah and the rock where surviving Benjamites sought refuge.
Definition
Rimmon may refer to a man, a Syrian deity, several towns, or the rock where surviving Benjamites sought refuge. The name is associated with a pomegranate and, in the divine name, with a Syrian idol worshiped at Damascus.
Biblical Usage
Rimmon is mentioned as a Syrian deity in the account of Naaman, as the name of a Judahite place later assigned to Simeon, and as the rock where six hundred surviving Benjamites remained after the battle at Gibeah. It also identifies a man of Beeroth.
Historical Background
The Judahite place may have been Ain-Rimmon, “the spring of the pomegranate,” identified with a site southwest of Hebron. The Rock of Rimmon is identified with the village of Rummon on the edge of the hill country.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
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 Kings 5:18. (3.) One of the “uttermost cities” of Judah, afterwards given to Simeon (Josh. 15:21, 32; 19:7; 1 Chr. 4:32). In Josh. 15:32 Ain and Rimmon are mentioned separately, but in 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, 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.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
a deity worshipped by the Syrians of Damascus, where there was a temple or house of Rimmon. (2 Kings 5:18) Rimmon is perhaps the abbreviated form of Hadad-rimmon, Hadad being the sun-god of the Syrians. Combining this with the pomegranate which was his symbol, Hadad-rimmon would then he the sun-god of the late summer, who ripens the pomegranate and other fruits. (pomegranate) the name of several towns.