Zechariah 12:11
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,.... Great numbers being awakened, convinced, and converted, and brought to true repentance:
as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. Lightfoot {i} thinks the prophet alludes to the two great and general lamentations of Israel; the one about the rock Rimmon, where a whole tribe was come to four hundred (it should be six hundred) men, Judges 20:47 and may be rendered, "the sad shout of Rimmon"; and the other in the valley of Megiddo, for the death of Josiah. Some take Hadadrimmon to be the name of a man, as Aben Ezra; and the Targum and Jarchi say who he was, and also make two mournings to be alluded to {k}; paraphrasing the words thus,
"at that time mourning shall be multiplied in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Ahab the son of Omri, whom Hadadrimmon the son of Tabrimmon slew in Ramothgilead; and as the mourning of Josiah, the son of Amon, whom Pharaohnecho, or the lame, slew in the valley of Megiddo:''
and so the Syriac version renders it,
"as the mourning of the son of Amon in the valley of Megiddo.''
Of the first of these, see 1 Kings 22:31 and of the latter,
2 Kings 23:29 according to Jerom, it was the name of a place in the valley of Megiddo, near to Jezreel; and which, in his time, went by the name of Maximianopolis, called so in honour of the Emperor Maximian; it was seventeen miles from Caesarea in Palestine, and ten miles from Jezreel {l}; and mention is made by Jewish {m} writers of the valley of Rimmon, in which place the elders intercalated the year; though Jerom elsewhere {n} says, that Adadrimon was a king, the son of Tabrimmon, who reigned at Carchemish, whom Pharaohnecho slew at the same time he slew Josiah. Both words, Hadad, or Adad, and Rimmon, are names of idols with the Syrians.
{i} Works, vol. 1. p. 46.
{k} Vid. T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 3. 1. & Gloss. in ib. & Moed Katon, fol. 28. 2.
{l} Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 892.
{m} T. Hieros. Chagigah, fol. 78. 4.
{n} Trad. Heb. fol. 86. I.