Mount Hor

For the mountain in state of Vermont of the United States, see Mount Hor (Vermont).

Mount Hor (Hebrew: הֹר הָהָר‎, Hor Ha-Har) is the name given in the Old Testament to two distinct mountains. One borders the land of Edom (on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea in modern-day Jordan), and the other is by the Mediterranean Sea at the Northern border of the Land of Israel.

Mount Hor in Edom

Mt. Hor

This Mount Hor is situated "in the edge of the land of Edom" (Numbers 20:23 and 33:37) and was the scene of Aaron's divestiture, death and burial. Since Josephus' time it has been identified with the Jebel Nebi Harun ("Mountain of the Prophet Aaron" in Arabic), a twin-peaked mountain 4780 feet above sea-level (6072 feet above the Dead Sea) in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Arabah valley. On the summit is a shrine, the Tomb of Aaron, said to cover the grave of Aaron.

Some investigators at the turn of the 20th century dissented from this identification: for example, Henry Clay Trumbull preferred the Jebel Madara, a peak northwest of 'Ain Kadis.

Mt. Harun

Northern Mount Hor

Another Mount Hor is mentioned in the Book of Numbers, defining the northern boundary of the Land of Israel. It is traditionally identified as the Nur or Amanus Mountains. When 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.

References

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