Mount Hor (Hebrew: הֹר הָהָר, Hōr hāHār) is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to two distinct mountains. One borders the land of Edom in the area south of the Dead Sea, and the other is by the Mediterranean Sea at the Northern border of Israel. The first Mount Hor is especially significant to the Israelites, as Aaron the high priest, brother of Moses, died there.
This Mount Hor is situated "in the edge of the land of Edom" (Numbers 20:23, 33:37 ) and was the scene of Aaron's divestiture, death and burial. The exact location of Mount Hor has been the subject of debate.
Based on the writing of Josephus, [1] it has customarily been identified with the Jebel Nebi Harun ("Mountain of the Prophet Aaron" in Arabic) or simply Jebel Harun, a twin-peaked mountain 4780 feet above sea-level in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Arabah section of the Jordan Rift Valley.[ citation needed ] On the summit is a mosque from the Mamluk period, traditionally marking the so-called "Tomb of Aaron" and built over the remains of a Byzantine church, [2] and in the saddle west of it are the remains of a Byzantine monastery dedicated to Aaron. [3]
Some investigators from the mid-19th until the beginning of the 20th century dissented from this identification: for example, Henry Clay Trumbull preferred the Jebel Madara, a peak about 15 miles northwest of 'Ain Kadis [4] (possibly Kadesh Barnea), near the modern border between Israel and Egypt. Among others who favor this location are Wilton (The Negeb, 1863, pp. 127 ff.), de:Frants Buhl (Die Geschichte der Edomiter, 1893, p. 23), G.B Gray (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers, p.270) and Bruno J. L. Baentsch (Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers [1900–03 in German as Exodus – Leviticus – Numeri], p. 572.)[ citation needed ]
Mount Uhud north of Medina has a shrine similar to the mosque on top of Jebel Harun that is connected by tradition to the life of Aaron. [5]
Another site is in the Sinai, where some 2 km northwest from Saint Catherine's Monastery both Muslim and Christian shrines stand at the top of a hill. [5] Tradition places there the site of the golden calf. [5] The Muslim maqam marks the place where prophet Harun stood, with his footprint preserved nearby. [5] Muslims from the area used to perform an annual ziyara , a procession to the monastery accompanied by sacrificing of camels, which took place until the Six-Day War. [5]
Another Mount Hor is mentioned in the Book of Numbers (Num. 34:7–8), defining the northern boundary of the Land of Israel. It is traditionally identified as the Nur or Amanus Mountains. [6] In the Second Temple period, Jewish authors seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the Promised Land, began to construe Mount Hor as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain. [7] Rabbinic writings also declare Amanah a boundary of the land of Israel, saying "What constitutes the Land [of Israel], and what constitutes [the places] outside the Land [of Israel]? All that which inclines itself and drops down [precipitously] from Turos Amanus and inward (i.e. towards its south) is the Land of Israel. From Turos Amanus and outward (i.e. towards its north) are [places] outside the Land [of Israel]." [8] [9] [10] [11]
Mount Hor is also called Amanah, and is known as Mount Manus in the Jerusalem Targums, and Umanis in Targum Jonathan. [12] Historical geographer, Joseph Schwarz (1804–1865), sought to establish the bounds of the Amanah mountain range described in rabbinic literature, adding that it is to be identified with Mount Hor, "the northern terminus of Palestine", and which, according to him, "extends south of Tripoli as the promontory of Mount Hor(Numbers 34:7), called in the period of the Grecian domination Theuprosopon, and now Ras al-Shaka, as far as the Mediterranean, and thence it runs a distance of 12 English miles to the south of Tyre, to the Ras al Nakhara , where its rocky cliffs, which are visible at a great distance, extend into the sea." [13] By this description, Amanah is the southernmost Anti-Lebanon Mountains, equatable with Mount Hermon, and is not to be confused with Mount Amanus in southern Turkey.
According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron was a Jewish prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran.
Abarim is the Hebrew name used in the Bible for a mountain range "across the Jordan", understood as east of the Jordan Rift Valley, i.e. in Transjordan, to the east and south-east of the Dead Sea, extending from Mount Nebo — its highest point — in the north, perhaps to the Arabian desert in the south.
The Promised Land is Middle Eastern land in the Levant that Abrahamic religions claim God promised and subsequently gave to Abraham and several more times to his descendants.
The Taurus Mountains are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east. It is a part of the Alpide belt in Eurasia.
Kadesh or Qadesh or Cades is a place-name that occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, describing a site or sites located south of, or at the southern border of, Canaan and the Kingdom of Judah in the kingdom of Israel. Many modern academics hold that it was a single site, located at the modern Tel el-Qudeirat, while some academics and rabbinical authorities hold that there were two locations named Kadesh. A related term, either synonymous with Kadesh or referring to one of the two sites, is KadeshBarnea. Various etymologies for Barnea have been proposed, including 'desert of wanderings,' but none have produced widespread agreement.
Eleazar or Elazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses.
Job is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. In Islam, Job is also considered a prophet.
Mount Seir is the ancient and biblical name for a mountainous region stretching between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in the northwestern region of Edom and southeast of the Kingdom of Judah. It may also have marked the older historical limit of Ancient Egypt in Canaan. A place called "Seir, in the land of Shasu", thought to be near Petra, Jordan, is listed in the temple of Amenhotep III at Soleb.
Some translators of the biblical book of Deuteronomy translate Pisgah as a name of a mountain, usually referring to Mount Nebo. The word פִּסְגָּה literally means "summit". The region lies directly east of the Jordan River and just northeast of the Dead Sea. Mount Nebo is the highest among a handful of Pisgah summits; an arid cluster of hilltops on the western edge of the Trans-Jordanian Plateau. Arabic names for Pisgah include: Fasga (Phasga), Jabal Siyāgha, Rās as-Siyāgha and Rujm Siyāgha.
Mount Amana is an ancient name for the southern Anti-Lebanon Mountains.
Ma'an is one of the governorates of Jordan, it is located south of Amman, Jordan's capital. Its capital is the city of Ma'an. This governorate is the largest in the kingdom of Jordan by area.
Antiochia ad Taurum was a Hellenistic city in ancient Syria east of Mount Amanus of the Taurus mountain range. Later identified as 'ad Taurum montem' in the Commagene province of Syria.
Gabal Sin Bishar is a mountain located in west-central Sinai. It was proposed to be the biblical Mount Sinai by Menashe Har-El, a biblical geographer at Tel Aviv University in his book The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus. This location was used for Zondervan's NIV Atlas of the Bible.
The Tomb of Aaron is the name of the supposed burial place of Aaron, the brother of Moses, according to Jewish, Christian, and local Muslim tradition.
Jebel Aqra is a limestone mountain located on the Syrian–Turkish border near the mouth of the Orontes River on the Mediterranean Sea. Rising from a narrow coastal plain, Jebel Aqra is a mariners' landmark that gathers thunderstorms.
Edom was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomites appear in several written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant, including the list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c. 1215 BC as well as in the chronicle of a campaign by Ramesses III, and the Tanakh.
Saint Catherine is a town located in the South Sinai Governorate of Egypt, situated at the foot of Mount Sinai. The city is the site of Saint Catherine's Monastery.
Moresheth-Gath, also Moreshet-Gat, was a town of the tribe of Judah in ancient Israel mentioned in the Bible. It was located in the Shephelah region between Lachish and Achzib.
In Islam, Hārūn ibn ʿImrān, the Biblical Aaron, is a prophet and messenger of God, and the older brother of the prophet Mūsā (Moses). He along with his brother (Moses) preached the Israelites to the Exodus.
Ezekiel 35 is the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter contains a prophecy against Mount Seir in Edom, to the south of Judah. Biblical commentator Susan Galambush pairs it with an oracle promising "restoration to the mountains of Israel" in the following chapter.
In the Second Temple period, when Jewish authors were seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the Land, it became customary to construe "Mount Hor" of Num 34:7 as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain. (p. 205, note 98)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hor, Mount". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
