Mount Zalmon
Mount Zalmon is a mountain mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Ebal. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Mount Zalmon appears in the narrative of Abimelech's campaign against the rebellious city of Shechem in Judges 9:48-49. After defeating Shechem's defenders in the field, Abimelech led his forces up Mount Zalmon, took an axe and cut branches from the trees, commanding his troops to do the same. They then piled these branches against the stronghold of the Tower of Shechem and set them ablaze, killing approximately a thousand men and women who had taken refuge inside. A Mount Zalmon also appears in Psalm 68:14, where the psalmist declares, "When the Almighty scattered kings there, it snowed on Zalmon," using the image poetically to describe God's victorious intervention, with the scattered remains of enemies compared to snowfall on a dark mountain. The name Zalmon means "dark" or "shady," suggesting a densely wooded peak. In the Judges account, the mountain's wooded character was essential to Abimelech's brutal strategy of destruction.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Mount Zalmon is commonly identified with Mount Ebal, the prominent mountain north of Shechem (modern Nablus) in the central hill country of Samaria. Mount Ebal rises to 940 meters and overlooks the pass between it and Mount Gerizim. Its proximity to Shechem fits the Judges 9 narrative perfectly. Archaeological work on Mount Ebal by Adam Zertal in the 1980s uncovered a large stone structure dated to the Iron Age I period, which Zertal controversially identified as Joshua's altar (Joshua 8:30). The site yielded animal bones, ash deposits, and pottery. The identification of Zalmon with Ebal is not universally accepted, with some scholars proposing a smaller hill nearer to Shechem's tell.
Verse Appearances (1)
Judg
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]