HERMON

A lofty mountain on the northeast border of Palestine, called also Sirion Shenir, and Sion, (not Zion,) De 3:8; 4:39. It is a part of the great Anti-Lebanon Range; at the point where an eastern and lower arm branches off, a little south of the latitude of Damascus, and runs in a southerly direction terminating east of the head of the sea of Galilee. This low range is called Jebel Heish. Mount Hermon is believed to be what is now known as Jebel esh-Sheikh, whose highest summit, surpassing every other in Syria, rises into the region of perpetual snow or ice, ten thousand feet above the sea. For a view of Hermon, see MEROM. Professor Hackett thus describes its appearance as seen from a hill north of Nazareth: "The mountain was concealed one moment, and the next, on ascending a few steps higher, stood arrayed before me with an imposing effect which I cannot easily describe. It rose immensely above every surrounding object. The purity of the atmosphere caused it to appear near, though it was in reality many miles distant. The snow on its head and sides sparkled under the rays of the sun, as if it had been robed in a vesture of silver. In my mind’s eye at that moment it had none of the appearance of an inert mass of earth and rock, but glowed with life and animation. It stood there athwart my path, like a mighty giant rearing his head towards heaven and swelling with the proud consciousness of strength and majesty. I felt how natural was the Psalmist’s personification: "the north and the south thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name,’" Ps 89:12. The "little Hermon" of modern travellers, not mentioned in Scripture, is a shapeless mass of hills north of the smaller valley of Jezreel. "Hermonites," or Hermons, in Ps 42:6, denotes the peaks of the Hermons range.

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Hermon. Hermon
A peak, the eastern prolongation of the Anti-Lebanon range, reaching to the height of about 9,200 feet above the Mediterranean. It marks the north boundary of Palestine (Deut. 3:8, 4:48; Josh. 11:3, 17; 13:11; 12:1), and is seen from a great distance. It is about 40 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It is called “the Hermonites” (Ps. 42:6) because it has more than one summit. The Sidonians called it Sirion, and the Amorites Shenir (Deut. 3:9; Cant. 4:8). It is also called Baal-hermon (Judg. 3:3; 1 Chr. 5:23) and Sion (Deut. 4:48). There is every probability that one of its three summits was the scene of the transfiguration (q.v.). The “dew of Hermon” is referred to (Ps. 89: 12). Its modern name is Jebel-esh-Sheikh, “the chief mountain.” It is one of the most conspicuous mountains in Palestine or Syria. “In whatever part of Palestine the Israelite turned his eye northward, Hermon was there, terminating the view. From the plain along the coast, from the Jordan valley, from the heights of Moab and Gilead, from the plateau of Bashan, the pale, blue, snow-capped cone forms the one feature in the northern horizon.”

Our Lord and his disciples climbed this “high mountain apart” one day, and remained on its summit all night, “weary after their long and toilsome ascent.” During the night “he was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun.” The next day they descended to Caesarea Philippi.

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Hermon. anathema; devoted to destruction

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HERMON. → A mountain in the north of Palestine → Called
* SIRION De 3:8,9; Ps 29:6
* SION De 4:48; Ps 133:3
* SHENIR De 3:9; 1Ch 5:23; So 4:8