Mount Pethach

Pronunciation: puh-THAK

Also Known As

The righteous call it Mount Zion. The wicked call it Hermon (I Achee 13:2), and it is “known to the Decadarchoi as Hermon” (I Achee 1:41). A note in the Book of Melchizedek adds that it is “known as Mount Hermon today” (Melchizedek 12:54 n. 113). The Books of Melchizedek and Moses spell it Pethak, the newer spelling of the same name (Melchizedek appendix, p. 600).

It was known as Mount Zion to the early Israelites “because it was to them a beacon of declaration for Shabuot”; later, “some men of power among them wanted to enhance the importance of their temple so they applied the term Mount Zion to it” (Enoch, Bedal 9:27 n. 125; see Zion).

Meaning of the Name

Pethach “means ‘to open wide'” (I Achee 1:41 n. 22, Strong’s #6605), and Strong’s #6607 gives “gateway or entryway” (Enoch, Seth 1:7 n. 1). Of the hill at Eden’s gate, Enoch writes that “the name Pethach means to be wide open so a person can see as God sees and it also means a portal or gateway” (Enoch, Seth 1:10). Hermon is given as “to devote to destructive religious uses” or “to make accursed” (I Achee 1:58 n. 26, Strong’s #2768, #2763), and also “abrupt” (Achee Appendix, p. 688 n. 280).

Named After the Gate of Eden

This mountain was not the first to bear the name. The original hill Pethach, with its two great oaks, stands “eastward from the headwaters of the Euphrates over against the mountain called Mahujah,” at the gate through which the first parents left Eden (Enoch, Seth 1:7). “The mountain in Israel called Hermon by the wicked and Pethach by the righteous was named after the western gate of Eden” (Enoch, Seth 1:7 n. 1).

The Founding of Shabuwa

Nearly one year after the Flood waters had abated, Shem withdrew from his people and went with Sedeqetelebab upon Mount Pethach, and there prepared an altar unto the Lord in the high places of the mount. “Pethach overlooked all the surface of the earth that was covered with the flood.” For forty-nine days the Eerkodeshoi gathered upon Mount Pethach to make their declarations, and Shem sounded the Trump of Summons at sunrise each Sabbath, for seven Sabbaths (I Achee 1:41–43). The full account of the covenant is in Shabuwa.

The Book of Melchizedek describes the place. The whole camp ascended the side of Mount Pethak to “a flat place on the side of the mountain where they will camp for the jubilee of days,” with shelters and “water there amidst the trees.” The altar was “about waist high,” with four large rocks placed in the directions, draped with sheepskins, “to be a place of honor for the Eerkodeshiy to sit”; “a broad view can be seen to the southeast and to the west the summit of Pethak extends toward the sky rising abruptly beside the place of the altar” (Melchizedek 12:54–57). When the Eerkodeshiy were summoned, they came in millions, “what looks like rivers in the sky coming toward Pethak” (Melchizedek 12:65), “and even Mount Pethak was made glad,” with the hope that “that poor old mountain will hold the joy of these moments in her heart forever to help her move past all that she will be called upon to endure” (Melchizedek 12:69). In the last ten days the Eerkodeshiy “came to Pethak and just stayed there,” and on the fiftieth day, the Day of Instruction, “there was assembled a multitude of the righteous upon Mount Pethak” (Melchizedek 12:133–137).

Two Covenants on One Mountain

The same mountain holds two opposite oaths. “The culmination of movement in the agency of the Eerkodeshoi was sealed firm with their covenant on Pethach insomuch that now they will never decide to betray Him or abandon Him and the agency of the Decadarchoi was also set and sealed in their pact on Hermon” (I Achee 1:58).

The Altar of the Old Ones

As time went by, “the altar on Pethak began to be called by the Eerkodeshiy the Altar of the Old Ones and to this day the ancient righteous gather there to reminisce and Shem and Shum are always among them and Yeshua Himself was transfigured while visiting there with the old ones during His time in the flesh” (Melchizedek 12:143).

Real-world parallel: the Gospels name only “an high mountain” for the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2), reached six days after Jesus and the disciples were in the towns of Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27), which lies at the foot of Mount Hermon. Older tradition points to Mount Tabor, while many modern scholars favor a spur of Hermon.

Achee at Twelve

As a boy, Achee went with his grandfather Shem to the Feast of Shabuwa, “and once in his twelfth year Shem took him up to Mount Pethach and repaired the altar and renewed Shabuwa from the rising to the setting of the sun and the altar was upon a flat place between two peaks.” Achee was taught all things by his grandfather and viewed the records and the Heavenly Tablets of Seth and of Enoch (I Achee 1:64). The Trump of Shem was handed down to him “at the time that he was twelve years old upon Mount Pethach” (I Achee 11:88). Later, in a vision, Achee “could see the altar of Shem upon Mount Pethach” once again (I Achee 13:2).

Brother to the Mountain

“Shem was the brother of mountains even the Mount Pethach obeyed him” (I Achee 2:101). As wickedness grew among the people, Shem went “unto the south of Pethach to a fountain of water where he could view the mount,” and with his father Noah he founded a city there called Mabunachash (I Achee 1:72).

The Day of Instruction of Israel

When the time came for the Day of Instruction, Israel brought his sons and family to the altar of Bethel, from which one could see “into the misty distance beyond Mount Pethak.” They stood in a line facing north, “and before them was Mount Pethak where Shem’s altar of Shabuwa was,” and Israel used the Trump of Shabuwa to summon all the Eerkodeshiy (Moses 4:73–74).

The Calling of Goker Harim I

The Lord told Shinab that his son would be called Goker Harim, and that about a year later the boy should “come unto me upon Mount Pethach being guided there by the hand of his uncle” (I Achee 6:74). His mother Tohorah prepared him all that year, and he and his uncle “ascended up the mountain to the valley that extends between its peaks even unto the place where Shem called forth Shabuwa,” where he prayed, not knowing it, “near the broken down altar of Shem” (I Achee 6:76–78). In his twenty-fifth year he went “once again … up to the altar of Pethach,” and there the Lord called him by name, Goker Harim (I Achee 6:83). The Book of Moses gives the same account (Moses 15:74–87).

The Decadarchoi and Hermon

After Shabuwa was established, the Decadarchoi “would not venture near Mount Pethak” (Little Book 1:100). When Semihazah tempted Messiah, he showed Him the glory of the world that his Decadarchoi would have among men “because of their covenant upon Hermon” (I Achee 9:55). Nahor attended the Day of Instruction on Mount Pethak to learn for Shakath how they might destroy the Law (Moses 10:44). Eighteen hundred years after the birth of Messiah, “all the hosts of the Decadarchoi assembled with their filth upon Mount Hermon and their spirits swept in upon the holy place of Shem,” and there they determined “that they would make the children of the earth rich” (I Achee 13:13–16). A later council of war “could not be held in the heights of Hermon for fear of the righteous” (I Achee 13:54). In the end, the cast-out Decadarchoi lost the support of “those who had bound themselves together with imprecations upon Hermon” (II Achee 7:101).

Real-world parallel: in 1 Enoch, the two hundred watchers “swore together and bound one another” by a curse and “descended into ‘Ardos, which is the summit of Hermon,” calling the mount Armon “for they swore and bound one another by a curse” (1 Enoch 6:5–6, Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha vol. 1, p. 15). The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd ed., 1999, p. 411) notes a sanctuary at the summit with an inscription “to the greatest and holy god,” adored by people who swore in his name, which “brings to mind the tale in 1 Enoch 6:4-6.”

The Watcher Named for the Mountain

Enoch named the Watcher of sulfur Pethachi, “for he is to honor and preserve the ways of Eden” (Enoch, Bedal 10:74). His original name “was ‘Pethachi,’ which means ‘of Mount Pethach'”; when he sinned he got a new name, Hermoni (Achee Appendix, pp. 688–689; Handbook p. 561).

Seen From Afar

In the third year of the birthing prayers for Messiah, the seven men chosen by the Men of Renown “instructed Malakiel when they viewed Mount Pethach” (I Achee 8:1–9). From Netophah they could see “all the land of Israel even unto Mount Pethach” (I Achee 8:18). In the drought of Elijah, when the Jordan dried up, “men were known to gather water from Pethach” (I Achee 5:55). When the kingdom divided, the northern kingdom lay “near the borders of Chinnereth in the foothills of Pethach” (I Achee 5:77).

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