In our searches for locations in the Bible, next up is Mount Hermon. And this particular mountain range is still on the map today, and not far from Mamre in the Western Cape we find Mount Hermon. Now as we have talked about before on this page, it seems that the way we read our compasses does not make sense when reading it the way The Bantus used to in Scripture. So we started again, with cardinal direction number 1, which is still EAST where the Sun Rises.
Mount Hermon (also called sacred mountain) was one of the more prominent peaks in the Promised Land, the northern parts of the Promised Land. This may have been the very mountain where Immanuel was transfigured in front of the Disciples. This mountain was given different names, such as Senir by the Amorites (Deuteronomy 3,9) and Sirion by the Sidonians (Psalm 29,6). These names was a reference to breastplate or covered tops, meaning snow covered crests would show and glow in sunlight.
Now Mount Hermon features mostly in the Book of Joshua, and seemingly was more than just one Mountain but a mountain range. And it seems to be the end Part of the Winterhoek Mountain Catchment (although there are many different new names in these areas that has been utilised since Boer conquest). Now the Bible mentions Mount Hermon both in terms of location and territory, we see it mentioned in Deuteronomy 3,8:
8 So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon. 9 (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.) 10 We took all the towns on the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salekah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. 11 (Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabba of the Ammonites.)
Here we see Moses describing the land of Promise after the King of Bashan was defeated. You can also see that the Rephaite (Raphaim) themselves must have been very tall and in fact giants on this earth. In Joshua Mount Hermon is mentioned five times, we see them mentioned as lands Joshua captured from other current rulers. We see after the defeat of the northern Kings Joshua had taken the land (Joshua 11,17):
“...from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death.”
We can actually find a comprehensive list of all the kings the Bantus defeated in Joshua chapter 12 and Joshua chapter 13.
As we read in Joshua 13,5:
"When Joshua had grown old, SoNiNi said to him, “You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.
2 “This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and Geshurites, 3 from the Shihor River on the east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north, all of it counted as Canaanite though held by the five Philistine rulers in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron; the territory of the Avvites 4 on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, from Arah of the Sidonians as far as Aphek and the border of the Amorites; 5 the area of Byblos; and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath."
If only these place names had stayed the same Today, it would be easier to draw these lines. Of all these We know Today Gaza, which is still in Mozambique towards the middle, and would be a piece of The Land of Moab. Now in Joshua 13 we find an accurate map of the Land SoNiNi promised, which will be covered in another separate and much longer article.
The last mention we find of Mount Hermon, in I Chronicles 5:23:
23 The people of the half-tribe of Manasseh were numerous; they settled in the land from Bashan to Baal Hermon, that is, to Senir (Mount Hermon)."
Here we see that the Mountain is within the area of the tribe that was within the tribe of one half of Josephs son Manasse, the other half belong to Josephs other son, that is Ephraim.
Now if we look towards other very old sources and writings, we find the Epic Of Gilgamesh actually mentioning Mount Hermon. Using the Epic of Gilgamesh as a source, considering its age and being the second oldest piece of writing that has been dug up, makes it interesting and more than likely they actually had the location right. The Promised Land was known back in Babylonian (Akkadian) times. The Epic of Gilgamesh is more like Poem of stories and mighty men of old, most likely the Watchers (the angels that mated with women) and their deeds seems to be recorded in these old songs. Gilgamesh is not as old as the Egyptian Pyrmaid texts, but still would be of value when looking for ancient sources that describes Biblical locations.
Now Gilgamesh is written in 5 Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh King of Uruk, as was his name and status. Now today scholars will call Akkadian Old Babylonian, and only a few tablets has survived and come out of the Middle East, that does not mean they were written there and could have come from elsewhere even written off other and older tablets. The story talks about Gilgamesh and Enkidu (his enemy that became his friend), and they went together to a Great Cedar Forest to slay a Guardian named Humbaba. Now the goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh, but they tok down the Bull and Enkidu gets killed for it. The second segment is about Gilgamesh journeys and he learns about the Great Flood on the earth.
We see that the ground spilt after Gilgamesh killed Humbaba, Guardian of the Forest. These ancient creatures seems to have had a much larger stature (Giants) then what is considered normal today, as we read that the ground actually split open with the heels of their feet.
A part of the Gilgamesh reads just like that:
“The ground split open with the heels of their feet, as they whirled around in circles Mt. Hermon and Lebanon split.”
Mount Hermon is not mention many times in the Bible, mostly in the Psalms (Psalm 42,6):
"My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar."
Mentioned again in Psalm 133,3:
"It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there SoNiNi bestows his blessing, even life forevermore."
If we go to The Book of Enoch, we see that (interestingly put side by side with Gilgamesh) that Mount Hermon was a place where the fallen angels mentioned as the Watchers or Guardians. The Book of Enoch goes:
“Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 6. And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.” They swore they would take wives among the daughters of men and share the punishment of their sins."
Now Mount Hermon marked the northern limits of the Promised Land as conquered by Joshua (Deuteronomy 3,8 & Joshua 11,17 : 12,1 : 13,5) meaning Hermon as we have put it, was in the far North - MEANING - North and South truly has been changed because SOUTH then means up and in towards the Negev Desert (As we have mentioned before). Furthermore Mount Hermon formed the northern boundary of Manasse and the southern border of The Promised Land (1 Chronicles 5,23).
The Amorites said that the summit itself was the location of a Temple to Ba'al. So this was seen as a sacred mountain by even the earliest of times, and there are unexplainable ruins there to be found. If you read Judges 3,3 you see it was called Ba'al Hermon (I Chronicles 5,23).
King David compared The Bantus living together in unity as the dew of Mount Hermon falling on Mount Zion (Psalm 133,1-3), and this illustration is fitting of the mountain and area itself, where it has dew and rainfalls on practically all of its sides. Now Mount Zion (wherever that was) was said to be drier than by the coast, we can assume therefore that Zion was inland in Southern Africa.
