The word Armageddon
is a composite of two Hebrew words meaning mount
and Megiddo.
Megiddo was a town a couple of days’ journey north of Jerusalem, located in the plain of Jezreel. The town did not have a mountain associated with it (which makes the addition of the Hebrew word for mountain
(ar) intriguing). Though mentioned various times in the Old Testament, perhaps the town’s most notable mention is in relation to Barak’s triumph over the hordes of Jabin “by the waters of Megiddo” (Judges 5:19). The wider context of that triumph as related in Judges 5 makes very clear that this battle was the Lord’s and its outcome very different from what was expected—given that Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots to Israel’s none. In this battle the Lord God used nature itself to destroy his (people’s) enemies. In that sense “Megiddo” becomes shorthand for an underdog’s victory over kings due to the Lord’s intervention. In the course of the centuries of church history, there have been numerous such Armageddons, where the Lord wonderfully protected his people/church from Satan’s attacks.
16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.