Hebrew word · H2769
חֶרְמוֹנִים
vechermonim
Hermon
Plural of Hermon, the mountain range (c. 2,800 m / 9,200 ft) on the northern border of Israel. The plural probably means its several summits, 'the Hermon peaks'. The name comes from the root ch-r-m, 'set apart, devoted', which suggests a sacred mountain.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
Hermonites , of Hermon "a sanctuary"
the name for the three summits of Mount Hermon located on the border of Palestine and Lebanon
Another name of cher.mon (חֶרְמוֹן "(Mount )Hermon" H2768)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Plural of Hermon, the mountain range (c. 2,800 m / 9,200 ft) on the northern border of Israel. The plural probably means its several summits, 'the Hermon peaks'. The name comes from the root ch-r-m, 'set apart, devoted', which suggests a sacred mountain.
- Against the English
KJV 'the Hermonites' (as if a people group); BSB 'the peaks of Hermon'; WEB 'the heights of Hermon'; YLT 'the Hermons'. The 'peaks/heights' renderings are correct.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Deut 3:8–9 (also called Sirion and Senir); Judg 3:3 ('Mount Baal-Hermon'), showing it was a cult site; Ps 89:12 and 133:3 (the 'dew of Hermon'). In later Jewish tradition (1 Enoch 6:6) it is the mountain where the rebel angels came down.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 42:6 וְ֝חֶרְמוֹנִ֗ים and Hermon<s>
O my God, my soul despairs within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—even from Mount Mizar.
Here: A plural, 'Hermons', found only here: the several peaks of the Hermon massif, the high snowy range on Israel's far northern edge. KJV's 'Hermonites' treats it as a people, but it is the mountain range.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.