Rimmon

Rimmon is a name that turns up in three settings. It marks cities in the lists of Joshua, in the territory given to Judah and Simeon. It names a rock in the wilderness where six hundred men of Benjamin fled and “abode in the rock Rimmon four months” after a bitter war among the tribes. And in 2 Kings 5:18 it names a house of worship, where a servant asks, “the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing,” because his master will bow there and lean on his hand. Same name, different places and purposes, and a reminder to read each verse in its own setting.

5 verses

Joshua

Joshua 15:32

And Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty and nine, with their villages:

Joshua 19:7

Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages:

Judges

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.

2 Kings

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.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

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.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

Rimmon

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.

Rimmon

(pomegranate) the name of several towns.

(1.) A city of Zebulun (1 Chronicles 6:77; Nehemiah 11:29) a Levitical city, the present Rummaneh , six miles north of Nazareth.

(2.) A town in the southern portion of Judah, (Joshua 15:3) allotted to Simeon, (Joshua 19:7; 1 Chronicles 4:32) probably 13 miles southwest of Hebron.

(3.) Rimmon-parez (pomegranate of the breach), the name of a march-station in the wilderness. (Numbers 33:19,20) No place now known has been identified with it.

(4.) Rimmon the Rock, a cliff or inaccessible natural fastness, in which the six hundred Benjamites who escaped the slaughter of Gibeah took refuge. (Judges 20:45,47; 21:13) In the wild country which lies on the east of the central highlands of Benjamin the name is still found attached to a village perched on the summit of a conical chalky hill, visible in all directions, and commanding the whole country.

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(5.) A Benjamite of Beeroth, the father of Rechab and Baanah, the murderers of Ish-bosheth. (2 Samuel 4:2,5,9)