RIMMON, the name of several ancient places in Palestine. The word signifies a pome granate ; and probably the places were so called because of the abundance of the fruit in their localities.
; 'EpcoducZ ; 'EpeAucfN; Alex. 'Pep.,uthp; ; Remmon), a city on the extreme southern border of the territory originally assigned to the tribe of Judah ; it is grouped with Ziklag and Ain (Josh. xv. 21, 32). The region in which it was situated was subsequently given to Simeon (Josh. xix. 7, where the name is Remnzon in the A. V., though the Hebrew is rarl. The translators have perhaps followed the Vulgate). Rimmon would appear to have stood towards the western extremity of Simeon, and thus south of the plain of Philistia ; for Joshua in enumerating the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah,' begins at the coast of Edom on the east, and Rimmon is the last of twenty-nine, and therefore must have been near the western extremity. The only other notice of it in the Bible is in the prophecies of Zechariah : All the land shall be turned as a plain, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem' (xiv. to). The land referred to is the kingdom of Judah ; Geba lay on the northern and Rimmon on the southern border. It is worthy of note that in Neh. xi. 29 En-rimmon is found among the towns which were occupied by the tribe of Judah after the return from Babylon. It is grouped with and Beer sheba, and must consequently have been situated near the southern border of the tribe. The name is compounded of the words Ain and Rimmon, which, it will be observed, occur together without the copulative in Josh. xix. 7 and Citron. iv. 32. It would appear that Ain and Rimmon were dis tinct places, but situated close together. And this view, as will be seen, is confirmed by modern research.
Though both Eusebius and Jerome mention Rimmon, their notices are so confused, and even contraclictmy, that they evidently knew nothing of it. They appear to have confounded three towns
of the same name. In one place Jerome calls it a town of Simeon or Judah ;' and yet he locates it fifteen miles north of Jerusalem.' In the very next notice he writes, Remmon, in tribu Simeonis, vel Zabulon' (Onomast., s. v. Renanzon). Under the name Eremnzon (TpekLIEldn,, Onomast., s. v.) both Eusebius and Jerome appear to give a more accurate account of the site of this city. They state that it is a very large village ' (vicus prograndis), sixteen miles south of Eleutheropolis. This was no doubt pretty nearly its true position (see Reland, Pal., P. 973).
About thirteen miles south of Eleutheropolis (now Beit Jibrin) is a ruined village called Um er-Rummanim (` Mother of Pomegranates'), which in all probability marks the site, as it bears the name, of Rimmon of Simeon. A short distance (about a mile) south of it are two tells, both of which are covered with ruins ; and between them, in the valley, is a copious fountain, filling a large ancient reservoir, which for miles around is the chief watering-place of the Bedawin of this region (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 344). As fountains are extremely rare in this southern district, it seems probable that this one may have given the name of Ain to the ancient town on the adjoining tell ; and the proximity of Ain and Rimmon led to their being always grouped together.
2. oyin", ; PeAuthv ; Remmono). A city of Ze bulun, assigned to the Levites of the family of Merari Chron. vi. 77). Some suppose that it is identical with Ditnnah in the list given by Joshua (xxi. 35), and that the latter is a corruption. There can be no doubt, however, that it is the same Rimmon which is called Renzmon-Methoar in Josh.
xbc. 13 (see REMMON-METHOAR).