RIMMON

RIMMON, apparently an epithet used in Damascus for the chief Aramean god, Baal-Hadad. Naaman and his master, the king of Syria, are said to have worshiped in the "Temple of Rimmon" (ii Kings 5:18). Akkadian texts equate the Mesopotamian weather god, Adad, with the god Rammanu (perhaps derived from Akkadian ramāmu, "to thunder"), and it is thought that the Arameans may have transferred the latter name to their own chief god. The name Rimmon was used as a theophoric element in the names of both Tabrimmon (i Kings 15:18), and Hadadrimmon (Zech. 12:11).

bibliography:

E. Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, 1 (1885), 196–7; A. Deimel, Pantheon Babylonicum (1914), 44–46; U. Cassuto, in: em, 1 (1955), 322; B. Mazar, in: A. Malamat (ed.), The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (1961), 143 (Heb.).

[Chayim Cohen]

Rimmon in the Bible, a deity worshipped in ancient Damascus. (See also bow down in the house of Rimmon at bow2.)