Rimmon

Rimmon (Hebrew "pomegranate") is the proper name for a number of people or objects in the Hebrew Bible:

Torah with rimmonim

1. A man of Beeroth (2 Samuel 4:2), one of the four Gibeonite cities. (See Joshua 9:17.)
2. A Syrian cult image, mentioned only in 2 Kings 5:18. In Syria this deity was known as “Baal” (“the Lord” par excellence), in Assyria as “Ramanu” (“the Thunderer”).
3. One of the "uttermost cities" of Judah, afterwards given to Simeon (Josh. 15:21, 32; 19:7; 1 Chronicles 4:32). In Josh. 15:32 Ain and Rimmon are mentioned separately, but in 19:7 and 1 Chr. 4:32 the two words are probably to be combined, as forming together the name of one place, Ain-Rimmon = "the spring of the pomegranate" (compare Nehemiah 11:29). It has been identified with Um er-Rumamin, about 13 miles south-west of Hebron.
4. The Rock of Rimmon was where the Benjamites fled (Judges 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 Rammun, "on the very edge of the hill country, with a precipitous descent toward the Jordan valley," supposed to be the site of Ai.
5. (pl.Rimmonim) The ornaments of the Torah scroll.
6. Rimmon means a grenade (also rimmon-yadh if it is specifically a hand grenade).
7. An Israeli weekly publishing.

Literary references

• John Milton, "Paradise Lost", Book I

RIMMON, whose delightful Seat
Was fair DAMASCUS, on the fertil Banks
Of ABBANA and PHARPHAR, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold:
A Leper once he lost and gain'd a King,
AHAZ his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of SYRIAN mode, whereon to burn
His odious offrings, and adore the Gods
Whom he had vanquisht.

• Saki, "Srendi Vashtar"

The Woman indulged in religion once a week at a church near by , and took Contradin with her, but to him the church service was an alien rite in the House of Rimmon.

This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.