Armageddonn.

Etymology: < Armageddon (post-classical Latin Hermagedon , Hellenistic Greek Ἁρμαγεδών , both in Revelation 16:16), the name of the place where the last battle between good and evil is predicted to take place before the Day of Judgement, probably < an unattested Hebrew compound *Har Mĕgiddō or *Har Mĕgiddōn , lit. ‘Mount Megiddo’ < har mountain, hill + Mĕgiddō (also Mĕgiddōn ), the name of a tell (tell n.²) about 19 miles (30 kilometres) south-east of Haifa.Revelation 16:16 characterizes the place name as Hebrew, and most commentators have assumed that it reflects the unattested Hebrew compound. The historical Megiddo was the site of an important fortress in ancient Palestine, and many battles have been fought in its vicinity; a famous battle in the early seventh cent. b.c., in which King Josiah of Judah was defeated by Pharaoh Necho II and killed, is mentioned in 2 Kings 23:29. The Bible only mentions a ‘plain of Megiddo’ (Zechariah 12:11), which may be the site of this historical battle, in connection with an eschatological prophecy, but not a ‘mountain of Megiddo’. However, Revelation 1:7 alludes to Zechariah 12:10–2, and Revelation 19:17 alludes to Ezekiel 39:17, which mentions ‘a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel’ where birds and animals will eat the flesh and drink the blood of the wicked. It is likely that references to the ‘plain of Megiddo’ were conflated with the mention of the ‘mountains of Israel’ in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as the site of the eschatological battle of Gog and Magog. Other suggested etymologies of the mythical place name, e.g. that of a supposed first element Hebrew ʿīr ‘town, city’ in the unattested Hebrew compound, pose more problems and have won little acceptance. Compare the following earlier examples of the place name in an English context:OE Homily: De Temporibus Anticristi (Corpus Cambr. 419) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 201 Ðonne æfter þan gegaderað se godes wiðersaca ealle þeoda to gefeohte ongean þone heofonlican cyning on ðære stowe, þe man hat Ermagedon. ▸ c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Royal) (1850) Apoc. xvi. 16 And he gederide hem in to a place, that is clepid in Ebru Hermagedon [a1400 Trin. Dublin 75 Hermagedon, in Latyn, togidre rysynge].1534 Epist. Olde Test. S. Iohn xvi. in Bible (Tyndale) (new ed.) f. ccclxxv^v They are the sprettes of devyls workynge myracles, to go out vnto the kynges of the erth and of the whole worlde to gaddre them to the battayle of that gret daye of God allmyghty...And he gaddered them togedder into a place called in the hebrue tonge Armagedon.1573 G. Gifford tr. W. Fulke Prælections xvi. f. 108 The Deuill..gathered together Kinges & there armes into a place apointed for there owne killinge and slaughter, to which the name Armageddon in the Hebrewe tongue is giuen.1624 A. Leighton Speculum Belli Sacri xxvi. 118 The frogges of the bottomlesse pi[t] doe croak and call together the Kings of the ear[th] to the battle of Armageddon.