In the third chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses mentioned Mount Hermon in verse 8 while talking about Israel’s conquest of Og, king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of Heshbon. These were both giants, and at least one ancient account tells us that they were brothers. Sihon’s bed frame was said to be 4 x 9 cubits (vs. 11), or about 13½ feet long.

The territory of these two kings was on the east side of Mount Hermon. Bashan extended from Gilead on its southern border to Mount Hermon in the north. Heshbon was just south of Bashan in the land of Moab.

There is an interesting connection between these giants and Mount Hermon. It is even more interesting to see how this connects with “the days of Noah” and perhaps the year 2012.

Deuteronomy 3:8 and 9 says,

⁸ Thus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.)

Verse 9 appears to be one of Ezra's editorial notes, explaining the various names by which Mount Hermon was known by the fifth century B.C. It was known by the name Sirion, which means “breastplate,” and also Senir, “coat of mail.”

Another name was Sion, for Deut. 4:48 says Israel conquered Bashan “as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon).” Sion appears to be a shortened form of Sirion. At any rate, the Hebrew spelling of Sion is different from Zion. Sion is spelled with a shin, while Zion is spelled with a tsadik. Sion means “lofty,” while Zion means “parched place.”

Sion was also the Greek Septuagint spelling of the Old Testament Zion, a hill in Jerusalem. This makes it somewhat confusing, because this means that there are two mountains called Sion. A dispute has thus arisen over which mountain is meant in Heb. 12:22,

²² But you have come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.

Jesus was transfigured on Mount Hermon after visiting Caesarea Philippi, which was located at its base (Matt. 16:13; 17:1). This adds credence to the view that Mount Hermon had become the symbol of the New Jerusalem. The old Mount Zion was part of the old Jerusalem that God's presence had forsaken in Ezekiel 10 and 11, and so the place of God's presence was symbolically represented by Mount Hermon—the new Mount Sion.

The Angels that Sinned on Mount Hermon

While the biblical account of “the angels that sinned” (2 Peter 2:4) is quite limited in detail, ancient traditions claim to know much more information. Whether these traditions are true or not can hardly be established today, but it might be helpful to piece some of those traditions together in order to understand what men believed in times past.

The Book of Jubilees 4:15 tells us:

¹⁵ And in the second week of the tenth jubilee Malalel [i.e., Mahalaleel] took unto himself as wife Sina, the daughter of Barakhel, the daughter of the sister of his father, and she bore him a son in the third week, in the sixth year, and he called his name Jared; for in his days the angels of the Lord descended upon the earth, those that are called Watchers, that they should teach the children of men to do justice and right over the earth.

Jared’s birth took place in the year 460. The tenth Jubilee dates from 441-490 (years from Adam). Jared was born in the sixth year of the third week of the Jubilee. This agrees with the dating of the Masoretic text of Genesis, and shows also that a Jubilee cycle was just 49 years, with the 50^th year serving also as the first year of the next Jubilee cycle.

The traditions tell us that some of these “watchers” [eir, “guard, watcher”] desired to take some of the earthly women as wives. From then on, there were said to be both good and evil watchers. Daniel 4:13 thus tells us “a Watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven” commanded that the Babylonian “tree” should be cut down. This is thought to imply the existence of unholy watchers, as the Bible appears to make this careful distinction.

The circumstance of the unholy watchers’ plot is the subject of chapter 13 of the Book of Enoch:

¹ And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto ² them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: “Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men ³ and beget us children.” And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: “I fear ye will not ⁴ indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.” And they all answered him and said: “Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations ⁵ not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.” Then sware they all together and bound themselves ⁶ by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn ⁷ and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, ⁸ Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaq1el, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens.

The leader of the fallen watchers is named Semjaza. It is said that his fellow conspirators descended upon one of the three summits of Mount Hermon in the days of Jared. We are not told specifically if these watchers hatched their plot prior to their arrival on Mount Hermon, or if upon their arrival they saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and then conceived their plot.

The Book of Jubilees tells us that the watchers sinned in the days of Jared, the father of Enoch. Both the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees inform us that Enoch himself was the one who reprimanded these watchers and their Nephilim offspring—the giants. Enoch was born 622 years from Adam, when his father Jared was 62, so these unlawful marriages are said to have taken place in that general time frame.

Since the flood took place in the year 1656, the problem continued in the earth for over a thousand years before they were destroyed by the flood.

The Nephilim Problem Continues

Genesis 6:4 tells us that in some way the problem occurred again after the flood, resulting in more Nephilim. These spread throughout the region in the days of Moses and survived even to the time of David. Genesis 6:4 says,

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.

The point is that it was believed that the event of Gen. 6:4 occurred on Mount Hermon. Its close proximity to Bashan and Heshbon may lend support to this tradition.

The False Manifestation of the Sons of God

This could be seen as an early attempt to thwart or to usurp the prophecy of Christ’s transfiguration on the same mountain in Matthew 17. Christ’s transfiguration was the occasion of a divine decree establishing the TRUE Son of God, as opposed to these false “sons of God,” as they are called in Gen. 6:4.

Likewise, if we have come to Mount Sion of the heavenly Jerusalem, as Hebrews tells us, then we are the true sons of God. Whatever happened in Genesis 6:4 was a counterfeit sonship movement. Somehow, they knew long ago that Jesus Christ would be glorified on Mount Hermon (Sion), and that it was the earthly symbol of the heavenly Jerusalem—so they decided to try to fulfill the prophecy in their own unlawful manner. Most likely, they were motivated also by the knowledge that the sons of God were destined to rule the earth, so they attempted to usurp that position as “sons of God.”

In Matt. 17:5 God says, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When we understand that there was a false group called “the sons of God” in Genesis 6:4, we can see that the divine pronouncement was meant in part to identify the TRUE Son of God, the Heir of the world.

Peter also testifies of that day in 1 Peter 1:16-18,

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. ¹⁷ For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— ¹⁸ and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the mount.

John was there as well, testifying in John 1:14,

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

In other words, if the false “sons of God” came down on Mount Hermon as a counterfeit sonship movement, then it would make sense that the true Son of God would go to the same location to be transfigured and to receive His commendation from the heavenly Father.

The Hebrew root of the name Hermon is charam, which means “seclude or devote.” This was also the word used to describe the temple site in later years, for it was a holy site devoted to God’s use. Likewise, Jericho was a city that was “devoted” to God. This meant that ownership of Jericho and its wealth had been usurped by false gods to build false kingdoms, but that the Israelites were to put all of it back under the jurisdiction of God to be used for Kingdom purposes.

So also Mount Hermon was considered a holy mountain. It had been “devoted” to the watchers who sinned, but Jesus went there to reclaim it as the place of true Sonship in a picture of the manifestation of the true sons of God.

Mount Hermon and the Phoenix

Mount Hermon is located on the border of Syria and Lebanon. It is the main source of water for the whole area, supplying even the water for the Jordan River and for Lebanon. In ancient times this whole area was known as Phoenicia, or “land of the Phoenix.”

The occultists usually look to Phoenicia and Mount Hermon as their source of religious, philosophical, and technical knowledge or illumination. The Greek alphabet was copied from Phoenician. Many of the English letters are also copied from Phoenician. The Hebrew prophets themselves wrote their books in “Phoenician Hebrew” prior to the Babylonian captivity, when their alphabet was changed to the Aramaic letters of Babylon.

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of speech. The word itself is derived from Phoenician.

The phoenix itself was the main symbol of Phoenicia and, by extension, the watchers who descended upon Mount Hermon. When the flood destroyed them, they were able to rise again somehow, as Gen. 6:4 says. This is encompassed in the symbol of the Phoenix rising up out of its ashes.

The Nephilim survived at least to the time of David, and it is believed by occultists that not all of them were destroyed. Some survived, but because of continual interbreeding, they no longer appear as giants. Nonetheless, the present world rulers of Babylon (at the top) believe that they have Nephilim blood and that this is the secret of their spiritual power.

Occult Freemasonry

In the occultism of Freemasonry, the numbers 3 and 33 are very prominent. Hence, the three-sided triangle is basic to the study of trigonometry, made famous by Pythagoras. He was a famous Greek mathematician who was schooled in Sidonia, the biblical Sidon, which was one of the main cities of Phoenicia.

Freemasonry has 33 degrees in its hierarchy, although they claim that the 33^rd degree is purely honorary. The question is: Why 33 degrees? The answer is seen in the fact that Mount Hermon is located at 33.33 degrees north, 33.33 degrees east. This is based on the Paris 0 meridian, which is 2.2 degrees east of Greenwich.

The Paris meridian was important to Freemasons and to the occult in general, because by using that reference point, Mount Hermon was pictured as the goal to be achieved in studying their “mysteries.”

Furthermore, 33.33 degrees represents 2012.9 nautical miles. Hence, Mount Hermon is located 2012 nautical miles from the equator and 2012 nautical miles from the Paris 0 meridian. Many occultists thus have believed that the end of 2012 will culminate their long quest for power since the Nephilim were destroyed, first by the flood and later by the Israelites.

Will they succeed? No, they will fail just as surely as the original Nephilim failed as “sons of God” to secure authority over the earth. Occultists have a long history of searching for hidden knowledge and divine truth, so that they can try to fulfill the prophecies by carnal means. They actually believe in God, and they know the laws of God, but they do not want to comply with the path that God has set forth in Scripture about how to become a lawful son of God.

One would think that if they were so intelligent, they would just accept Jesus Christ as their King, for then they could become legitimate sons of God. But they do not want Jesus Christ to rule the earth. Their motive is to usurp His place and to make Jesus just one of their “ascended masters,” but not THE MASTER of the Universe.

But Jesus Christ was the only one who was willing to die for us, and He was also the only one who was eligible to die for us, being without sin. None of the usurpers were willing to die for the sin of the world. They all wanted others to die for them.

The Year 2012

The occultists think of the American eagle as the symbol of the Phoenix, and at the London Olympics of 2012 the closing ceremony portrayed the rise of a Phoenix out of the flames of the nations. This sent a message that these modern Nephilim, who call themselves Olympians, intend soon to complete their long rise out of the destruction of the flood.

From complete destruction, they slowly gained secret power in “Mystery” Babylon, but their pride demands recognition. For this reason, they plan to emerge from the shadows of secret rule to open acceptance by all the nations in the world as the saviors of the world.

Of course, God has a different idea. The biblical sons of God are the overcomers who recognize Jesus Christ as the rightful Heir and King of the earth. The Nephilim are the unlawful usurpers.

The point is that the year 2012 is very important in the upper degrees of Freemasonry and other occult groups. They see it as the window of opportunity for them to become the manifested sons of God.

It is again “as the days of Noah” (Matt. 24:37).

It is said that the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012. Some place the date in October of 2011, but what is important is that certain occultists believe that 2012 is their window of opportunity. This belief is what motivates them to establish their New World Order by the end of 2012.