Riley, Isaac, a minister of the Presbyterian Church, son of H. A. Riley, was born in the city of New York Feb. 2, 1835. After receiving a preparatory edu- cation lie entered Yale College, and was graduated, having written the class poem. He next entered the Union Theological Seminary, and, after graduation, was admitted to the ministry. His first pastorate was at Middletown, Del., where he labored three years. He then accepted a call to Pottsville, Pa., and from there went to Newark, where he spent some time as associate pastor with his father-in-law, the Kev. Joel Parker. His next pastoral duties were in New York, where for seven j'ears he occupied the pulpit of the Thirty-fourth Street Church, filling the position with signal ability and success. In 1875 he was called to the pastorate of the VA'estminster Church, Buffalo, preaching his first sermon on Oct. 20. His work was remarkably fruitful, and during his pastorate the Cinirch enjoyed an unin- terrupted prosperity. He was a man of very decided ability, and in him were united qualities very rarely combined in the same individual. His reasoning fac- ulty was strong, and so also was his imagination. He was exact and mathematical, and at the same time po- etical and rhetorical. All the varied powers of a dis- ciplined intellect, and also of a strong emotional nat- ure, were imbued with divine love, so that the whole man was consecrated to the work of the ministry. He wrote carefully and spoke fluently, and the best work was what he gave to his people and the public. He was one of the most useful men in Buffalo. In his last illness he suffered much, but bore it uncomplainingly, and sank into the peacfeful slumber of death. He died at Buffalo Oct. 23, 1878. (VV. P. S.)
Riniah. See Worm.
Rimnion. See Pomegranate.
Rim'mon (Heb. Rimmon', "is*], a pomegranate, a& often), the name of an idol, of a man, and also of several places ; all probably having some allusion to the pome- granate, especially the localities, which were doubtless so named from the abundance of that fruit in the vicin- ity. (In our account of them, and of those innnediately following, we largely use the articles in the Dictionaries of Kitto and Smith.) See also Rimmon Methoar: RoiMON Parez.
1.. (Sept. 'Vefii.iav.) A deity worshipped by the Syr- ians of Damascus, where there was a temple or house of Rimmon (2 Kings v, 18). Traces of the name of this god appear also in the proper names Ilachidrimmon and Tabrimmon, but its signification is doubtful. Se- rarius, quoted bj' Selden l^De Dis Syris, ii, 10), refers it to the Heb. rimmon, a pomegranate, a fruit sacred to Venus, who is thus the deity worshipped under this title (comp. Pomona, from pomum). Ursinus (^4 rbore- tum Bibl. cap. 32, 7) explains Rimmon as the pome- granate, tiie emblem of the fertilizing principle of nat- ure, the personified naiiira naliirans, a symbol of fre- quent occurrence in the old religions (Biihr, SijmhoUL; ii, 122). If this be the true origin of the name, it pre- sents us with a relic of the ancient tree-worship of the East, which we know prevailed in Palestine. But
Selden rejects this derivation, and proposes instead that Rimmon is from the root D^l, rum, "to be high," and signifies " most high ;" like the Pha-nician Elium, and the Hebrew *(T'I??. Ilesychius gives 'VafiaQ, b 'vi\/iaTOQ Sitoq. Clericus, Vitringa, Rosenmliller, and Gesenius were of the same opinion. Movers {I'/ion. i, 196, etc.) regards Rimmon as the abbreviated form of Hadadrimmon (as Peor for Baal-Peor), Iladad being the sun-god of the Syrians. Combining this with the pomegranate, which was his symbol, Hadadrimmon would then be the sun-god of the late summer, who ripens the pomegranate and other fruits, and, after in- fusing into them his productive power, dies, and is mourned with " the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon" (Zech. xii, 11).
2. (Sept. 'Pefifiwi'.) A Benjamite of Beeroth, and the father of Rechab and Baanah, the murderers of Ish- bosheth (2 Sam. iv, 2, 5, 9). B.C. ante 1053.
3. (Sept. 'Pefijitov v. r. 'Epf/uoS', etc.) A town in the southern portion of Judah (Josh, xv, 32), allotted to Simeon (xix, 7; 1 Chron. iv, 32: in the former of these two passages it is inaccurately given in the A.V. as "Remmon"). In each of the above lists the name succeeds that of Ain, also one of the cities of Judah and Simeon. In the catalogue of the places reoccupied bj' the Jews after the return from Babylon (Neh. xi, 29) the two are joined, and inaccurately appear in the A.V. as "En-Rimmon" (q. v.). It is grouped with Ziklag and Beersheba, and must consequently have been situ- ated near the southern border of the tribe. Rimmon would appear to have stood towards the western ex- tremity of Simeon, and thus south of the plain of Phi- listia; for Joshua, in enumerating " the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah," begins at the coast of Edom on the east, and Rimmon is the last of twenty-nine, and therefore must have been near the western extremity. The only other notice of it in the Bible is in the prophecies of Zechariah -. "All the land shall be turned as a plain, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem" (xiv, 10). The land referred to is the kingdom of Judah ; Geba lay on the northern and Rim- mon on the southern border. Though both Eusebius and Jerome mention Rimmon, their notices are so con- fused, and even contradictory, that they evidently knew nothing of it. They appear to have confounded three towns of the same name. In one place Jerome calls it a town "of Simeon or Judah;" and yet he locates it "fifteen miles north of Jerusalem." In the very next notice he writes, "Remmon, in tribu Simeonis, vel Za- bulon" {Onomast. s. v. "Remmon"). Under the name Eremmon {'Epsfifiwv, Onomast. s. v.) both Eusebius and Jerome appear to give a more accurate account of the site of this city. They state that it is a " very large village" (vims prcfgrundis), sixteen miles south of Eleu- theropolis. This was no doubt pretty nearly its true position (see Reland, Palcfst. p. 973). About thirteen miles south of Eleutheropolis (now Beit Jibrln) is a ru- ined village called Khmbet Urn er-Rumanim ("Mother of Pomegranates"), which in all probability marks the site, as it bears the name, of Rimmon of Simeon. On the top of the hill there are the foundations of an im- portant square building of large well-dressed stones, and lower down there are the bases of three columns in situ {Qitar. Statement of "Pal. Explor. Fund," Jan, 1878, p. 13). A short distance (about a mile) south of it are two tells, both of which are covered witli ruins; and between them, in the valley, is "a copious foun- tain, filling a large ancient reservoir, which for miles around is the chief watering-place of the Bedouin of this region" (Van de Velde, Memoir, j). 344). As foun- tains are extremely rare in this southern district, it seems probable that this one may have given the name of Ain to the ancient town on the adjoining tell ; and the proximity of Ain and Rimmon led to tiieir being always grouped together.