GATH-RIMMON ; sept. ropw.
ta,50. 1. A town of Dan, apparently situated in the northern part of the plain of Philistia. It was one of the cities allotted out of that tribe to the I.evites (Josh. xix. 45 ; xxi. 24 ; Chron. vi. 69)• Both Eusebius and Jerome describe it as, in their day, a large village, twelve miles from Diospolis (Lydda), on the road to Eleutheropolis (Onomast. s. v. Gethremmon). Robinson suggests that it may be identified with the town of Geth, which Jerome places five miles from Eleutheropolis on the way to Diospolis, and with the modern village of Deir Dubban, where there are some remark able caverns (Bib. Res. ii. 67 ; Ononzast. s. v. Geth). Deir Dubban, however, is more than twenty miles from Lydda, and is consequently much too far south for either the noticcs of the Bible, or the statement of Jerome. The site of Gath-Rimmon has not yet been discovered.
must be sought for near the base of the moun tains east of Ramleh.
2. Another town of the same name (but in the Sept. 'IepaOct, Alex. BatOo-d), is mentioned in Josh. xxi. 25. It was assigned out of the tribe of Ma nasseh to the Levites. The parallel passage in Chron. vi. 70 reads avn instead of orn ; and some have hence inferred that the latter is an error, having crept into the text through oversight from the preceding verse (See Keil on Joshua, 10C. ; Winer, Rea/worterbuth, s. v.) It is much more probable, however, that these were both names of one place. In a wine producing country it was natural to give the name Gath, wine-press,' to a number of places. Bileam, or Ibleam, was situated in the plain of Esdraelon near Megiddo (IBLEAm).—J. L. P.