LEBANON
| Biblical GN | 1. | An ancient Near Eastern region (2 Nephi 12:13; 27:28) |
LEBANON is the name of a mountainous region north of ISRAEL mentioned four times in the ISAIAH section of the Book of Mormon but not mentioned as a separate PN or GN in the Book of Mormon. The name Lebanon contains an -ôn ending indicating a "place of whiteness" (perhaps of snow in the mountains). The German scholar, Wilhelm Borée, in his outstanding study, Die alten OrtsnamenPalästinas (The Ancient Place Names of Palastine), cites fully eighty-four ancient Canaanite place names with the ending -ôn in biblical and extrabiblical sources (Egyptian and Mesopotamian writings, the El-Amarna letters, ostraca), including Ayyalon (Elon) (Joshua 19:42-43), Eltekon (Joshua 15:59), Ashkelon (Judges 1:18), Gibeon (Joshua 9:3), Gibbethon (Joshua 19:44), Dishon (Genesis 36:21), Ziphron (Numbers 34:9), Helbon (Ezekiel 27:18), Holon (Joshua 21:15), Hammon (Joshua 19:28), Hebron (Joshua 10:36), Hannathon (Joshua 19:14), Dibon (Numbers 21:30), and Heshbon (Numbers 21:30).[1]
Notes
- ↑ Wilhelm Borée, 'Die alten OrtsnamenPalästinas (The Ancient Place Names of Palastine) 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1930); Anson F. Rainey, "Toponymics od Erets-Israel," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 231(1978):5, calls -ôn an "appellative" suffix that describes "some feature or aspect of the site."
