Meaning of MOUNTAIN

The land of Canaan is a country of mountains and valleys (Deut. 11:11), but it features few important peaks. Three chains follow one another, oriented from north to south in a more or less parallel way; Starting from the west, they are:

(a) The mountains of Judea, which extend through the mountains of Samaria and the Carmel chain. In particular, to the south are the hills of Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Moriah, and the Mount of Olives (Ps. 125:1-2; 48:3; Gen. 22:2; 2 Chron. 3:1; Zech. . 14:4); the mountains of Ephraim (Josh. 17:15) with Mount Ebal to the north and Gerizim to the south (Deut. 11:29; Jos. 8:33); Then there is, heading west, the chain that ends with Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19).

(b) The mountains of Galilee, beginning with Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. 31:8); Mount Tabor rises isolated above the plain of Esdraelon (Judg. 4:6). Some hills border the lake to the west.
Galilee and extend north through the much higher range of Lebanon.

(c) A mountain range east of the Jordan presents, starting south of the Dead Sea: Mount Seir (Gen. 36:8) and Mount Hor (Num. 20:22-25), the mountains Abarim (Num. 27:12; 33:48), Mount Nebo (Num. 33:47; Deut. 32:49); After following the entire course of the Jordan, often in the form of a high plateau, the chain ends at the Hermon (Deut. 3:8).

In a figurative sense, mountains symbolize eternity (Deut. 33:15; Hab. 3:6), stability (Is. 54:10) or the difficulties and dangers of life (Jer. 13:16), the seemingly insurmountable obstacles (Zech. 4:7; Mt. 21:21).

By using the expression "mountain of testimony" (Isa. 14:13), the prophet seems to make the king of Babylon speak in the manner of the Babylonians, who placed the seat of their deities on the summits of the misty mountains of the north ( Delitzsch, "Commentary of the Old Testament", ob. cit.; we have an additional example in the Olympus of the Greeks).