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HADAD-RIMMON

(Heb. hăḏaḏ-rimmôn)

A West Semitic deity. The name consists of the storm-god Hadad, followed by the epithet Rimmon (Akk. rammānu, “Thunderer”), which appears in Aramaic and Akkadian theophoric names and in the name of the king of Damascus, Tabrimmon (1 Kgs. 15:18). At 2 Kgs. 5:18 this deity, called Rimmon, appears as the state deity of Aram-Damascus. The Hebrew spelling rimmôn in the OT means “pomegranate,” and is possibly an intentional parody.

Zech. 12:11 predicts a lamentation in Jerusalem that will be “as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” An earlier interpretation of the verse understands Hadad-rimmon as a place name, identified by Jerome with Maximianopolis (modern el-Lejjun) or with the village of Rummâneh/µorvat Rimona (179243) and assumed to be the place where Josiah was killed and later mourned (2 Chr. 35:23-25). More likely Zechariah refers to the god and an associated ritual. The ancient Near Eastern practice of cultic mourning was also observed in Israel (Ezek. 8:14). Ugaritic myth tells of El and Anat’s lamentation for Baal-Hadad (as the storm-god was known at Ugarit) after his defeat by Mot (“Death”) and of the resumption of rainfall and attendant fertility of the soil upon his return from the netherworld. In light of these traditions, a mourning rite for the storm-god, in anticipation of the returning productivity of the land, would have been right at home in the agriculturally rich area of the “plain of Megiddo.”

Joel Burnett

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HADAD-RIMMON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)