GATH-RIMMON

GATH-RIMMON (Heb. גַּת רִמּוֹן). (1) Levitical city in the territory of Dan (Josh. 21:24; I Chron. 6:54). It is located in the vicinity of Jehud, Bene-Berak, and Me-Jarkon ("the waters of Yarkon") in Joshua 19:45 and it is possibly mentioned in the list of conquests of Thutmose III in c. 1469 B.C.E. (line 63) in the same general area, between Jaffa and Lydda. In the opinion of some scholars, the Giti-rimunima in the el-amarna letters (ed. by Knudtzon, 250) refers to this locality. Gath-Rimmon is commonly identified with Tell Jarīsha, which was excavated from 1934. The finds included remains of a Hyksos wall and glacis of the Middle Bronze II Age, a Late Bronze Age tomb, and evidence of a settlement up to the ninth century B.C.E. (2) Levitical city of the tribe of Manasseh west of the Jordan (Josh. 21:25). Some scholars consider it identical with the Giti-rimunima of the el-Amarna letters mentioned above, and as evidence that a second Gath-Rimmon existed in the region, they cite the worship of Hadadrimmon in the Jezreel Valley (Zech. 12:11). In the parallel text of levitical cities in I Chronicles 6, however, Bileam (Ibleam) appears instead of Gath-Rimmon, and the mention of the latter twice in Joshua 21 may have been due to an error. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: EM, S.V. (includes bibliography); QDAP, 4 (1935), 208–9; 6 (1938), 225; 10 (1944), 55ff., 198–9, excavation reports of Gath Rimmon (1); Aharoni, Land, index. (Michael Avi-Yonah)