Zechariah, like Revelation which draws on it, is a tough nut to crack but very rich. In the twelfth chapter, the prophet records the word of Yahweh that
The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the great mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. —12:11 (NLT)
Is it known historically who Hadad-rimmon was, what led to his demise, and how he was mourned? Is there apocalyptic significance to the reference to Megiddo? Was this an event well-known in the ancient world?
Clearly this mourning was apocalyptic and referred to the national mourning the spiritual Jerusalem would engage in upon the birth of the church during Messianic days. Even ancient references in the Talmud interpret Zechariah 12:10,12 as applied to the Messiah (according to Alfred Edresheim the Jewish historian in his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p. 1261). Some of which even identified this mourning with the death of Messiah. The 'mourning' would be like a great national mourning that gripped everyone, like experienced by the death of Josiah, who was slain at Hadadrimmon (a city) in the valley of Megiddon. This makes solid sense as Josiah was the last hope of the declining kingdom.
Although most translations say ‘of Hadad-rimmon’ and not ‘for’ as it was probably a city not a person, some do not take it as a city but as 'two' great lamentations of Israel. The one about the rock Rimmon and the other in the valley of Megiddo, for the death of Josiah. Some also understand Hadadrimmon to be the name of an 'actual man' who slew Ahab representing the first mourning and the second mourning still being for Josiah who Pharaoh Necho slew in the valley of Megiddo. In any case, it does not matter as it is simply referring to a great mourning irrespective of which exact one. I think the main idea is to connect the mourning with Josiah as he was a good King, and a mourning for Ahab seems improper for he was a wicked King and mourning for his idolatry is not fitting to the context. Mourning for a man who was not Jewish is hardly fitting at all. See Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible on this verse here for this and other views about Hadad-rimmon.
Regarding names, various sources suggest the name Hadadrimmon comes from the joining of two Syrian idols: Rimmon and Hadad who was the idol of the sun. The meaning of this does not seem to have any relations to the current context, other than that idolatry was connected to the fall of Israel. However, specific to your question I have not encountered any speculation regarding the meaning of Megiddo. Yet looking up the Hebrew meaning I noticed (one meaning) for the Hebrew word Megiddo is "place of crowds". This may indicate that when Messiah would be pierced, in verse 10, It would not be done in a secret place, but in the centre of the world upon a stage, in front of a crowd. Not only so but as the world has looked and watched this past event, more than any other event in history, possibly we are part of Megiddo?
What seems counterintuitive about this verse is that it follows the ‘pouring out’ of ‘grace’ and ‘supplication’ in verse 10. One may think then that what should follow is praise and joy, not mourning. However in fulfillment when Messiah was ‘pierced’ for their transgressions (John 19:37) spiritual Israel (those who had faith like Abraham) were blessed by 'mourning'. For Jesus started his earlier sermons saying that, ‘blessed are they that mourn for there is the kingdom of heaven.’ (Mathew 5:4). There seems to be a direct connection.
Therefore it seems that in the days of Messiah a wonderful blessing would occur in the house of Israel, part of which would be great grace and mourning coupled with the view of a Messiah being ‘pierced’ and resulting in a new heavenly resurrected Israel of fantastic proportion and power. Possibly done in a kind of 'Megiddo', that is a valley before the crowd. The jeering arrogance of his persecutors was like a vantage point from which they would witness his suffering in an infinitely ‘low depression’ where he bore the weight of the world’s sin.
This may have presented a more immediate comfort and preliminary fulfillment to Israel under the Maccabees when they valiantly fought off invasions against Israel after the captivity but the situation of that day has little resemblance of the glorious description of Israel in these verses.
like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon: Hadadrimmon has no connection to the Valley of Megiddon. These are, rather, two cases of mourning. [The first is] like the mourning of Ahab the son of Omri, who was slain by Hadadrimmon the son of Tabrimmon in Ramoth Gilead, as it is stated (I Kings 22:36): “A cry passed through the camp.” That is the mourning [of Ahab. The second case is] like the mourning of Josiah the son of Amon, who was slain by Pharoah the lame in the Valley of Megiddon, as it is stated (II Chron. 35:25): “And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke in their laments, etc.”
Implicit in Rashi's interpretation is that even though there were two events, the author treats them as one.
Verse 11:
ביּום ההוא יגדל המספּד בירוּשלם כמספּד הדדרמון בבקעת מגדון
In that day will become big the-lament in Jerusalem, like/as/akin-to haddadrimmon lament, in valley of megedon.
ביּום ההוא
In-day of the-that
(i.e. in that day)
יגדל המספּד
will-grow-big/will-increase the-lament
כמספּד הדדרמון
like haddadrimmon lament
בבקעת מגדון
in-valley of Meggido
Haddad was the god of agriculture/fertility. Or could it be one of the Palestinian/Philistine characters in the Bible?
Nobody knows what rimmon refers to. Everyone speculates. Meggido is a lush fertile valley in the Galilee lake region. Rimmon could be a settlement/village in that region. Then what is Haddad-Rimmon? May be Rimmon is a town populated by Haddad believers. During Zechariah's time, after the Israeli return from exile, there were still pagan populations in the region.
Like saying, "The Rome-Christian", rather than just saying "Rome".
Wikipedia indeed identifies a town Rimmon but is not in the Meggido/Galilee region, but west of the Dead Sea in south-central Israel. Whereas Galilee is in northern Israel.
Rimmon in Hebrew is pomegranate. The pomegranate is also a symbol of reproductive fertility. And so Hadad-Rimmon may be describing the fertility sect/denomination of the fertility god cult. But pomegranate is also used for symbolizing pregnant and fertile earth. So Hadad-Rimmon could refer to a sect of Haddad devotees whose mascot of religion is the pomegranate (like the cross (or fish) is the mascot of Christianity).
Like trying to differentiate the "Cross-Christians" from the "Fish-Christians". Or Baptists from Lutherans.
I would urge archaelogists to look for symbols of pomegranate among the artifacts of Haddad's religion and look for archaic fragments documenting lamenting among his devotees. That would give weight to my hypothesis.
כְּמִסְפַּד הֲדַדְרִמּוֹן
haddadrimmon lament
Is it possible that the haddad-rimmon lament was a huge, pagan, noisy, mournful festive rite? And those Haddad devotees of the Rimmon mascot are crying, beating themselves, yelling, and begging their fertility god for rain and a rich harvest and plentiful children they could use as cheap labor?
Is the verse saying ..
On that day, the lament in Jerusalem will become huge, like those annoying noisy dreadful rites by the Hadad devotees of the Pomegranate persuasion in the Meggido valley. (So Jerusalem too will mourn like that.)
Oh, so you despise and mock those loud ululating cries huh, but you Jerusalem and house of David will too ulalate like that in despair.
Verse 10:
OK, let's look at verse 10.
ושפכתי על בית דויד ועל יושב ירושלם
רוח חן ותחנונים
והביטו אלי
את אשר דקרו
וספדו עליו
כ מספד
על ה יּחיד
וְהמר עליו
כהמר על הבכור
And I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
The spirit of grace and supplication
And they will look at me
you whom they pierce
And/but they will mourn on/over him
Like mourning
On/over the only one
And feel-bitter on/over him
Like feeling-bitter on/over the first-born
Interpretation 1
And I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
The spirit of grace and supplication
And they will look at ne
And you (Zecharia) they (the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem) will pierce
But they will mourn over him (the one being pierced)
Like mourning the only begotten
And they will feel bitter over him (the one being pierced)
Like feeling-bitter over the first born
Interpretation 2
And I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
The spirit of grace and supplication
And they will look at me
And you (an unnamed entity) they
(the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem) will pierce
But they will mourn over him (the one being pierced)
Like mourning over the only begotten
And they will feel bitter over him (the one being pierced)
Like feeling-bitter over the first-born
The passage does not say
mourning for the only begotten
or
being bitter for the first-born.
Rather it says,
Mourning and being bitter for an unspecified entity LIKE anyone WOULD for an only begotten or for a first-born.
Does the unnamed entity in signify a messiah? Or Zechariah himself? Or a non-messianic person?
The Hebrew in the Bible sometimes (often?) switches between the indirection of the noun. Is the "he" and "you" the same person?
Like in the 23rd Psalm, the author starts off with referring to the LORD in the 3rd person singular
The LORD is my Shepherd and I shall not be in want. He ....
and then abruptly switches to using the 2nd person
Your sceptre and your staff, they comfort me ...
I saw some provocative suggestiions here that Hadad-rimmon was a kind of Canaanite cult that mourned the fertility gods in a very noisy way (maybe similar to the weeping of the Tammuz). Or that were dealing with two different mourning events, or that it is the name of the Messiah. While all these are possible i do not see the need to resort to such speculative measures. Hadad-rimmon could've well been a respected person or leader who died and was greatly mourned by his people. He might have been a respected priest or just a popular leader whose name was Rimmon (see 1 kings 15:18 for the name Tav-rimmon) who added the name Hadad to his name to show his fealty and devotion to this god whom he felt he had a personal connection. Name change was common in ANE. For example the Egyptian king Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and devoted himself entirely to the sun god Aten. And the bible itself is full of such names: Baal Zefon (Num. 33:7), Baal Peor (Deut. 4:3), Baal Me'on (Num. 32:38), Baal Hanan (Gen. 36:38) etc. In all these instances we find the combination of the name of the god Baal with another name, which possibly existed before the 'Baal' was added as a prefix. We also find the name Hadad-ezer in 2 Samuel 8:9. So we see that such name combo was widespread in the Levant.
In any case, there is nothing in the name that would suggest that were dealing with some mysterious cult or Messiah. In fact, the name is not unusual all in the setting and culture of Ancient Canaan. This was most likely a person that was named Hadad-rimmon that was greatly mourned by his people. Who he was and where he came from we don't know and we will most likely never know. But i do think that he is to be identified with the Aram-Damascus dynasty as most of the kings there were named Hadad (see this) and the name Rimmon also appears in the lineage.
Hadad-Rimmon is a Jewish nick-name for the object in the sky that the Greeks called Athena. Moses' teaching of the Israelites was based on his learning in his first 40 years in Egypt. Their pharaohs put their names everwhere because as long as their names appeared they would be remembered and therefore immortal. That is also why they obiterated the names of others or overwrote them. The writings of the Israelites showed they shared the same practice of debasing the names of the gods of their enemies. Since some called that object Hadad, the Judeans called it the "pomegranate" as it was a fiery red colour. In essence they mocked it. It has no place connotation. Other cultures had their names for it, for example it was Ba-al (All Powerful God) to the Canaanites.
That object was the planet Venus enwrapped in a huge cloud of space debris orbiting through our solar system on a seven-year cycle. Homer's Illiad describes it's end above Troy, an event noted in the skies by about 30 other cultures.
The above is based on my personal research on the topic of the Venus Comet. Hope to publish soon.
“Hadad-Rimmo” This compound word is made from Hadad, a storm and rain god (most modern scholars think Hadad was the same god as the Canaanite god Baal), and Rimmon, a thunder god (2 Kings 5:18. Some scholars believe Rimmon was also identified with Baal).
The use of the word here in the genitive case, “the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon,” is unclear. It could refer to “the mourning for Hadad-Rimmon” (cp. ESV, NAB, NLT), that is, the mourning done by the pagans when their gods were destroyed by Yahweh.
Also, however, Hadad-Rimmon could be a place name, in which case the phrase would mean “the mourning done at Hadad-Rimmon.” Although there is no known mourning event at a place by that name, the fact that Zechariah 12:11 says, “Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo,” has led many to believe that it is likely that Judah mourned the death of the righteous king Josiah at that place in the valley of Megiddo after Josiah was mortally wounded by an arrow (2 Chron. 35:22-25). The fact that it is the families of the Judeans who are mourning and not the pagans (Zech. 12:12-14), tends to support this latter interpretation.
This is the mourning regarding the one that dies in the previous verse Zechariah 12:10
It is in the midst of the end time war. We know otherwise that Israel needs to repent for the final redemption to take place from Isaiah 59:20. Well this is it. And the one that dies here is the source for the concept of the messiah son of Joseph who comes before the messiah son of David.
So to recap, this is the End of Times war where a coalition of countries attacks Jerusalem. During the war in Zechariah 12:10, someone dies which triggers mourning and repentance as per Isaiah 59:20 and later we will see G-d then comes to help them win this final war.
Now having explained the context verse 11 is doing what Tanach often does which is referring you to some other time and place to say it will be like this.
Hadadrimmon killed Ahab the son of Omri in Kings 22:36 and separately Josiah son of who was slain by Pharoah the lame in the valley of Megiddo II Chronicles 35:25
