Gath-rimmon
Gath-rimmon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Belameh. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
This Gath-rimmon, located in the region of Galilee, is one of two distinct biblical towns bearing this name. It appears in Joshua 21:25 as a Levitical city assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh within the territory of Issachar, given to the Kohathite families of the Levites as part of the distribution of cities for Israel's priestly tribe. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 6:70 refers to this same city as Bileam (or Ibleam), suggesting the two names may reflect variant designations for the same settlement or a textual transmission issue between the passages. The Levitical city system, established in Numbers 35 and detailed in Joshua 21, was designed to distribute the tribe of Levi, who received no territorial allotment of their own, throughout all Israel's tribes, ensuring priestly instruction and ministry were geographically accessible to the entire covenant community. Gath-rimmon/Bileam in Manasseh thus served as a center of Levitical ministry in the northern region, contributing to the religious and educational life of the surrounding Galilean population during the period of the tribal confederacy and early monarchy.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
This Gath-rimmon is tentatively identified with Khirbet Belameh, located near modern Jenin in the northern West Bank, a site also associated with the biblical Ibleam. The region sits at the strategic pass of the Dothan Valley connecting the Jezreel Valley with the central hill country. Archaeological surveys have identified significant Iron Age remains at and around Khirbet Belameh. The site of Ibleam/Bileam appears in Egyptian topographic lists of Thutmose III, confirming its antiquity and importance as a recognized Bronze Age settlement. Surface finds include pottery from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age, consistent with the site's biblical identification as a significant Manassite town that housed a Levitical community.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
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]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]