RIMMON

'righteously'; dikaiosyne (92 t.), 'righteouanesa'; dikaiod (39 1.), 'justify': dikaioma (lot.), 'righteouanesa' (4t. [AV] 'righteous act,' 'judgment,' 'ordinance,' 'juatification']); dikaidsis (2 t.), justification'; dikaiokrieia, 'righteous judgment' (Ro 2').

In the teaching of Jesus (Mt 5«- '»• ^o 6'' » 2V', Jn 16'- '°), and in NT generally, ' righteousness ' means, as in OT, conformity to the Divine will, but with the thought greatly deepened and spiritualized. In the Sermon on the Mount righteousness clearly includes right feeling and motive as well as right action. In Mt 6' (where dikaio-synS is unquestionably the true reading) there may be an echo of the later meaning acquired by tsedOqah, its Aramaic equivalent, the beginnings of which can be traced in LXX (Dt 6^ and 8 other passages) and the Heb. Sirach about B.C. 200 (3" 40") — 'benevolence,' 'almsgiving.' If, as cannot be reasonably doubted, the Sermon on the Mount was originally in Aramaic, the word for ' righteousness ' can hardly have been used in such a connexion without a side glance at a common popular application of it. Still, it is not safe to find more than a hint or echo.

In Mt 3'^, Zahn has observed, dikaio&yTie aeems to be used in the sense of dikaioTna, 'ordinance.' In the Pauline Epistles, where dikaiosyne and dikaiod are naost frequently used (85 times out of 131), the former in a, considerable number of cases describes not the righteousness required by God, but the righteousness bestowed by God and accepted by faith in Christ (Ro 1" etc.).

For fuller treatment of. art. JnsTiFicATioN.

W. Taylor Smith.

RIMMON (god). — Rimmon is the Hebraized form of Rammdn, the Bab. air-, weather-, and storm-god assimi-lated by popular etymology to the word for 'pome-granate.' He is mentioned, however (in 2 K 5"), not as a Palestinian or Babylonian, but as a Syrian, deity, who was honoured as the chief god of Damascus. Else-where there are many indications that the chief Aramaean divinity was called by that people not Rimmon or Ramman, but Hadad (wh. see). Ramman (meaning the thuuderer) was, in fact, indigenous in Babylonia, where he played a great mythological and religious rdle, in his twofold aspect of a beneficent deity, as the giver of rain, and of a maleficent, as the maker of storms and the wielder of the thunderbolt. His symbol was the axe and a bundle of lightning-darts. He was thus in some features the analogue of Zeus or Jupiter and Thor.

In Assyria, both the Aram, and the Bab. forms of the name were current (see Hadad) , The currency of the latter among the Hebrews (as RimTnon) is to be attributed to the Irag Babylonian occupation of Palestine before AramEcan times. The same combination as the Aasyrian is indicated in the Biblical Hadad-rimmon (wh. see).

J. F. McCoRDT.

The emblem of Ramman was the bull, and the wide-spread cult of the air-god may have had something to do with nationalizing the worship of Jahweh as represented by that animal. Of. also the name Tab-rimmon.

J. F. McCUEDY.

RIMMON.— 1. A Beerothite (2 S 4"- =■ '). 2. The rock whither the remnants of the Benjamites fled (Jg 20« 21"). It has been identified with a lofty rock or conical chalky hill, visible in all directions, on the summit of which stands the village of Rummiln, about 3 miles E. of Bethel. 3. A city in the south of Judah, towards the border of Edom, Jos IS''; in 19' counted to Simeon ; in Zee 14'° named as lying to the far south of Jerusalem. See, further, En-himmon. 4. In Jos 19" one of the boundaries of Zebulun is given as ' Rimmon which stretcheth to the Ne'ah' (AV wrongly ' Remmon-methoar to Neah'). In 1 Ch 6" [«<='>■ »'] the name appears as Rimmono, and in Jos 21^^ as Rimmonah (for which, by a textual error, MT has Dimnah). This Rimmon is the modern Rummaneh, north of Nazareth.

RIMMONAH, RIMMONO.— See Rimmon, No. 4.

RIMMON -PEREZ.— A 'station' (unidentified) of the children of Israel (Nu 33"').

RIZIA

RING.— See Obnaments, 2, 4. In Ca 6" RVm 'cylinder' is preferable to EV'ring,' the comparison being probably with the fingers of the hand.

RINGSTRAKED.— See Colours, 6.

RINNAH — A Judahite (1 Ch 42«).

RIPHATH.— One of the sons of Gomer (Gn 10'). The parallel passage 1 Ch 1«, by a scribal error, reads Diphath.

RISSAH.— A 'station' of the Israelites (Nu 33"').

RITHMAH.— A 'station' of the Israelites (Nu 33'8').

RIVER. — For the meaning and use of 'aphlq, ye'Sr, and nachal, sometimes rendered 'river,' see art. Brook. yabal (Jer 17'), 'abai (Dn B?- >■ «), are from the root ySbal, 'to fiow.' pdeg, 'division,' signifies an artificial water-channel, used for irrigation (Ps 1' etc.), by which the water from cistern or stream is led to the various parts of field, garden, or orchard requiring moisture. It is used poetically of the stream bringing the rain from the great storehouses on high (Ps 65'). f'Slah (Ezk Zl') is properly a 'channel' or 'conduit' (so 2 K 18" 202", Is 73 352, also Job 3S^ RV). The usual word for river in OT is rOMr (Job 40^, Ps 46* etc.). It is often used of rivers that are named: e.g, the rivers of Eden (Gn 2i« etc.), the Euphrates (Gn IS" etc.), the rivers of Damascus (2 K 5'^). The Euphrates is called 'the river' (Gn 31» etc.), and 'the great river' (Gn 15", Dt 1'), a title given also to the Tigris (Dn 10<). Aram-naharaim (Ps 60 [title], also Heb. Gn 24", Dt 23*), ' Aram of the two rivers,' is Me^^opotamia. The word appears to have been used like the Arab, nahr, only of perennial streams. It is applied, indeed, to the Chebar (Ezk 1') and the Ahava (Ezr S^'), while in Ps 137', Nah 2', Ex 7" 8', canals seem to be intended. But in all these cases they were probably not mere temporary conduits, but had become established as permanent sources of supply, so that, as with Chebar and Ahava, they might have names of their own. The NT word is potamos (Mk 1' etc.).

In the fig. language of Scripture the rising of a river in flood signifies the furious advance of invading armies (Jer 46"- 47*, Is 8'). The trials of affliction are like the passage of dangerous fords (Is 43'). The river is significant of abundance (Job 29' etc.), and of the favour of God (Ps 46*). To the obedient peace is exhaustless as a river (Is 48" 30^'). PrevaUing righteousness becomes resistless as an overflowing stream (Am 5^).

Palestine is not rich in rivers in our sense of the term. The Jordan is perhaps the only stream to which we should apply the name. Apart from the larger streams, the wady of the mountain is sometimes the nahr of the plain, before it reaches the sea, it in the lower reaches it is perennial. Bearing the name nahr in modern Palestine, there are: in the Philistine plain, the Sukreir and the Rubin; to the N. of Jafia, d-'Auja, el-FSlik, EskanderHneh, el-Mefjir, ez-Zerka, and ed-Difleh; to the N. of Carmel, el-Muqatla' (the ancient Kishon), Na'mein (the Belus), and MefsUh. The streams that unite to form the Jordan in the N. are Nahr d-Hasbani, Nahr d-Leddan, and Nahr Banias. The only nahr flowing into the Jordan from the west is the Jalud, near Beisan. From the east Nahr YarmUk drains the Jauldn and Haurdn, and at its confluence with the Jordan is almost of equal volume. Nahr e«-Zerka is also an important stream, draining a wide region.

The rivers are crossed to-day, as in ancient times, almost entirely by fords. When the rivers are in flood, tragedies at the fords are not infrequent. The rivers that open into the Mediterranean have their main fords at the mouth. The sand washed up by the waves forms a broad bank, over which the water of the stream spreads, making a wide shallow. W. Ewinq.

RIVER OF EGYPT.— See Egypt [River of].

RIZIA.— An Asherite (1 Ch 7").

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