Rimmon or Rimon () is a Hebrew word meaning 'pomegranate'. It appears as a name in the Hebrew Bible where, when translated to Greek, it takes the form Remmon Ρεμμων, Remmōn).

Rimmon ("pomegranate" in Hebrew) was a Syrian deity mentioned in the Second Book of Kings (), to whom a temple was dedicated. In Syria, this storm god was also known as Hadad (interpreted to mean "the breast" in Biblical Hebrew) or Baal ("the Lord"), and in Assyria as Ramanu ("the thunderer", when borrowed from Akkadian - cf. Akkadian ramanu, "to roar"). Israeli settlement Rimonim nearby is named after the biblical place.

  • Hadad-Rimmon near Megiddo

upright|thumb|A map showing Hadad-Rimmon in ancient Galilee (bottom left) and identifying it with [[Maximianopolis (Palestine)|Maximianopolis]]

Biblical figure

Rimon is mentioned as a man of Beeroth of the tribe of Benjamin, whose two sons, Baanah and Rechab, were captains of the army of Ish-bosheth, son of King Saul.

Syrian deity

Rimmon ("pomegranate" in Hebrew) was a Syrian deity mentioned in the Second Book of Kings (), to whom a temple was dedicated. In Syria, this storm god was also known as Hadad (interpreted to mean "the breast" in Biblical Hebrew) or Baal ("the Lord"), and in Assyria as Ramanu ("the thunderer", when borrowed from Akkadian - cf. Akkadian ramanu, "to roar").

Extra-biblical usage

  • An adornment of the Torah scroll (usually plural: Torah rimonim), from the Hebrew word for pomegranate.

upright|right|thumb|Torah with rimmonim

  • "Rimmon", a poem by Rudyard Kipling written in 1903 after the Boer War.
  • According to The Urantia Book, allegedly revealed by celestial beings and published in 1955 in the US, Rimmon was a small city in the region of Galilee which "had once been dedicated to the worship of a Babylonian god of the air, Ramman" (see Hadad/Ramman).

See also

  • Rimon (disambiguation)

References

he:רימון

ja:リンモーン