Sion

Sion in scripture is a name for Mount Hermon, the high peak that anchors the northern boundary of the territory east of the Jordan. It is a different mountain from Zion in Jerusalem, and the umbrella here treats only the Hermon usage.

A Name for Mount Hermon

The geographic summary of the Transjordan conquest fixes the northern marker by placing it on Sion and then immediately glossing the name: "from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to mount Sion (the same is Hermon)" (Deut 4:48). The two extremes — Aroer in the south on the Arnon, mount Sion in the north — frame the whole stretch taken from Sihon and Og. The parenthetical "(the same is Hermon)" treats Sion as an alternative name for Hermon rather than introducing a separate peak; the verse needs the gloss because the more familiar Hermon would otherwise leave the reader uncertain which northern mountain is meant.