Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 3:9
([Which] Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)
9. Archaeological Note. As a natural boundary, separating several nations, ermn has a name in the language of each. The Phoenicians, Heb. idonians, on the W. called it Sirin (cp. Psa 29:6), the Amorites Senr, its name in an inscription of Salmanassar II, Sanru, when he crossed from the coast towards Damascus (Winckler, KAT (3) [114] , 44, 190). These names may have been applied to different parts of the long Mt; in 1Ch 5:23, Senr is joined with, but apparently distinct from, ermn, cp. Eze 27:5, Son 4:8; and Arab, geographers gave the name Jebel Sanr to the part between Ba‘albe and oms.
[114] 3) Die Keilinschriften und das AIte Testament, 3rd edition (1903), by H. Zimmern and H. Winckler.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hermon, the southern and culminating point of the range of Lebanon, was also the religious center of primaeval Syria. Its Baal sanctuaries not only existed but gave it a name before the Exodus. Hence, the careful specification of the various names by which the mountain was known. The Sidonian name of it might easily have become known to Moses through the constant traffic which had gone on from the most ancient times between Sidon and Egypt.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Hermon the Sidonians call – Shenir] I suppose this verse to have been a marginal remark, which afterwards got incorporated with the text, or an addition by Joshua or Ezra.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Elsewhere called Mount Gilead, and Libanus or Lebanon, and here
Shenir, and Sirion, and, by abbreviation, Sion, Deu 4:48; which several names are given to this one mountain, partly by several people, and partly in regard of several tops and parts of it, whence
Shenir and Hermon are mentioned as distinct places, Son 4:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. HermonnowJebel-Es-Sheickthe majestic hill on which the long and elevatedrange of Anti-Lebanon terminates. Its summit and the ridges on itssides are almost constantly covered with snow. It is not so much onehigh mountain as a whole cluster of mountain peaks, the highest inPalestine. According to the survey taken by the English GovernmentEngineers in 1840, they were about 9376 feet above the sea. Being amountain chain, it is no wonder that it should have receiveddifferent names at different points from the different tribes whichlay along the baseall of them designating extraordinary height:Hermon, the lofty peak; “Sirion,” or in an abbreviated form”Sion” (De 4:48), theupraised, glittering; “Shenir,” the glittering breastplateof ice.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion,…. Which name it has in Ps 29:6 a name the inhabitants of Sidon gave it, but for what reason it is not easy to say; however, that it was well known to Tyre and Sidon, appears from snow in summer time being brought to the former, as will be hereafter observed:
and the Amorites call it Shenir; in whose possession it was last. Bochart k thinks it had its name from the multitude of wild cats in it, Shunar in the Chaldee tongue being the name of that creature; but Jarchi says Shenir in the Canaanitish language signifies “snow”; so, in the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, it is called the mountain of snow; and the Hebrew who read to Jerom, and taught him, affirmed to him that this mountain hung over Paneas, from whence snow in summer time was brought to Tyre for pleasure l, and the same is confirmed by Abulfeda m. There is said to be upon the top of it a famous temple, which is used for worship by the Heathens, over against Paneas and Lebanon n; and it is highly probable there was one even at this time, when it was possessed by the Amorites, since it is called Mount Baalhermon, Jud 3:3, from the worship of Baal, or some other idol upon it, as it should seem. Besides these, it had another name, Mount Sion, De 4:48 but to be distinguished from Mount Zion near Jerusalem. The names of it in this place are very differently interpreted by Hillerus o; though he thinks it had them all on account of the snow on it, which was as a net all over it; for Hermon, he observes, signifies a net, a dragnet, and Shenir an apron, and Sirion a coat of mail, all from the covering of this mount with snow.
k Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 14. col. 865. l De loc. Heb. fol. 88. B, C. m Apud Reland. Palestin. Illustrat. par. 2. p. 920. n De loc. Heb. fol. 88. B, C. o Onomastic. Sacr. p. 561, 562, 786, 929.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Sirion.(Sion,Deut.448.) Sirion, or Shirion, and Shenir, are thought to have similar meanings. But the Targum inteprets Shenir as the rock of snow. Shirion, according to Gesenius, means glittering like a breastplate. It would not be safe to assert that the mention of the Sidonian name of Hermon makes this verse an addition after Israel was in Palestine, though it might be so. The Jewish commentator Rashi points out that, including the name Sion (Deu. 4:48), this mountain has four names. Why mention them? To declare the praise of the land of Israel, which had four kingdoms glorifying themselves in it, and each of them saying, It is called after my name! But there are several notes of this kind in the Pentateuch. (See Gen. 23:2; Gen. 31:47; Num. 13:22; also Jos. 14:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Ver. 9. Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion Sirion signifies a mountain. Now as Hermon, one of the mountains of Gilead, where it joins to Lebanon, rises in the territories of the Sidonians, they term it the mountain, by way of eminence: it is called by this name, Psa 29:6. The Amorites call it Shenir, it is added; from the wild cats which abounded in this mountain, Bochart conjectures, for Sinar, in Arabic, is the name of that animal: or, perhaps, it might come from Seir or Sera; which, says Le Clerc, signifies a mountain, in Arabic; from whence the Spaniards have borrowed the name Sierra. See Bochart’s Canaan, lib. 2: cap. 11.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Which. Note these topographical parentheses, verses: Deu 3:9, Deu 3:11, Deu 3:14, Compare Deu 2:20-23, Deu 2:29.
Sirion = breastplate.
Shenir = coat of mail.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Hermon: Mount Hermon is the south-eastern branch of Lebanon, beyond Jordan. The Chaldee Targumist, who places it at Cesarea and Samaritan interpreter call it toor talga, “the mountain of snow,” because of its being always covered with snow; and Jerome informs us, that it lies higher than Paneas or Csarea Philippi, and that in the summer time snow used to be carried from thence to Tyre. It is now call El Heish, and is comprised in the district of Kanneytra. Deu 4:48, Deu 4:49, Psa 29:6, Psa 89:12, Psa 133:3, Son 4:8
Shenir: 1Ch 5:23, Eze 27:5, Senir
Reciprocal: Jos 12:1 – from the Jos 12:5 – Hermon Jdg 3:3 – in mount Psa 42:6 – Hermonites
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 3:9. Sirion Elsewhere called mount Gilead, and Lebanon, and here Shenir, and Sirion, which several names were given to this one mountain, partly by several people, and partly in regard of several tops and parts of it.