Rimmon
Rimmon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. Known today as Rumana. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Rimmon in the territory of Zebulun is mentioned in the tribal allotment narratives as a city assigned to the tribe of Zebulun in the land of Canaan (Joshua 19:13). The city was subsequently designated as a Levitical city given to the Merarite clan of the Levites (1 Chronicles 6:77), fulfilling the divine mandate that the Levites be distributed throughout all Israel's tribal territories. Zebulun's inheritance occupied a portion of the lower Galilee, a region of gentle hills and fertile valleys between the Jezreel Valley to the south and the upper Galilee to the north. The territory of Zebulun held prophetic significance, as Isaiah foretold that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, though initially treated with contempt, would in the future be made glorious (Isaiah 9:1-2), a prophecy the Gospel of Matthew applied to Jesus's ministry in the Galilee (Matthew 4:13-16). While Rimmon itself is not the subject of any specific narrative event, its role as a Levitical city contributed to the spiritual infrastructure that sustained Israelite worship throughout the northern territories.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Rimmon in Zebulun is identified with Rummaneh (also known as Rumana), a village in the lower Galilee of modern Israel, approximately 10 kilometers north of Nazareth. The site preserves remains from the Iron Age and later periods, including building foundations and pottery consistent with Israelite settlement. The village name Rummaneh preserves the ancient Semitic name Rimmon, meaning 'pomegranate,' a common place-name element in the Levant. The surrounding landscape of rolling hills and small valleys typifies the lower Galilee terrain. Limited formal excavation has been conducted at the site, though regional archaeological surveys have documented surface remains. The area's proximity to Nazareth and the Bet Netofa Valley places it within one of the most densely surveyed archaeological regions in Israel.
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]