Baal-hermon
Baal-hermon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Phoenicia in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Hermon. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Baal-hermon appears in two Old Testament texts as a northern frontier landmark associated with Israelite settlement and the incomplete conquest of Canaan. In Judges 3:3, it is listed among the nations left in the land to test Israel's faithfulness to the covenant: the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon "from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath." In 1 Chronicles 5:23, Baal-hermon appears again as the northeastern limit of the half-tribe of Manasseh's settlement east of the Jordan, with their territory extending "from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon." The name unmistakably connects the site with the worship of Baal on the slopes of the great Hermon massif, which straddled the modern borders of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Mount Hermon was revered as a sacred mountain throughout the ancient Near East, and it is associated in later Second Temple tradition with the descent of the Watchers described in 1 Enoch. Its snows fed the headwaters of the Jordan River, making the Hermon region foundational to the hydrology and agriculture of the entire Levant. As a frontier landmark, Baal-hermon symbolized both the unfulfilled promise of total conquest and the ongoing tension between Israelite faith and Canaanite religious practice.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Baal-hermon corresponds generally to the southern slopes and foothills of the Mount Hermon massif, the highest peak in the region at approximately 2,814 meters. The entire Hermon range has been identified as a locus of cultic activity from antiquity through the Roman period. Numerous small temples and votive inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic have been discovered on the slopes of Hermon, attesting to the mountain's enduring sacred status. Roman-period temples on the summit have been documented by survey work. The broader region has not been exhaustively excavated, but epigraphic evidence confirms that divine veneration of the mountain itself, consistent with the Baalistic name, was practiced across multiple centuries.
Verse Appearances (1)
1Chr
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]