Thread by @iloveoldthings

The names Har Hazeitim (Mt. Of Olives) and Har Hamishcha (Mount of Anointing) come from the many olive trees which flourished all over the mountain range. Their precious oil was used to anoint kings and in the Temple service. The term Har HaMoshchit (destroying mountain) is

https://twitter.com/iloveoldthings/status/1330256034347311104

mentioned in Jeremiah 51:25, in reference to Babylon, but was also used as a derogatory application for Har Hamishcha, which sounds very much alike, as a play on words. The designation Har HaMashchit apparently derives from the idol worship there, begun by King Solomon's Moabite

and Ammonite wives "on the mountain which is before (east of) Jerusalem" (Kings I 11:17), just outside the limits of the holy city. This site was apparently infamous throughout the First Temple period, as Josiah, one of the last kings of Judah, finally destroyed "the high places

that were before Jerusalem, to the right of Har HaMashchit,..."