RAMAH

(Raʹmah).

The Hebrew word signifies a height or a high place. (Ezek. 16:24) It was used as a proper name for a number of locations in Israel.

1. A city in the territory of Benjamin. In Joshua 18:25 it is listed between Gibeon and Beeroth. Apparently it was near Bethel, which city was in the S of Ephraim’s territory. (Judg. 4:5) A Levite traveling N past Jerusalem came to Gibeah, with Ramah evidently just beyond. (Judg. 19:11-15; Hos. 5:8) And it was in the neighborhood of Geba. (Isa. 10:29) These references combine with testimony of Eusebius in identifying Ramah in Benjamin with the locality of modern er-Ram, which is about five miles (8 kilometers) N of Jerusalem, two miles (3 kilometers) N of Gibeah, three miles (5 kilometers) E of Gibeon and two miles (3 kilometers) W of Geba. The city is on an elevation, as the name implies.

During the divided kingdom Ramah came in for considerable attention, located, as it was, near the border between Israel and Judah and the N-S road of the hill country. King Baasha of Israel began to expand or fortify Ramah in Benjamin while warring against Asa. (1 Ki. 15:16, 17; 2 Chron. 16:1) But when the king of Syria attacked Israel from the N, Baasha’s attention was diverted and Asa took Ramah and also the building materials Baasha had been using there, using these to build up neighboring Geba and Mizpah. (1 Ki. 15:20-22; 2 Chron. 16:4-6) It appears that, when Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 B.C.E., the Jews taken captive were assembled in Ramah before being moved to Babylon. (Jer. 40:1) After the exile Ramah was repopulated.—Ezra 2:1, 26; Neh. 7:30; 11:33.

Some scholars have concluded that such an assembling of Jews at Ramah before taking them into exile (perhaps accompanied by the slaughtering of some there) was referred to with the words: “In Ramah a voice is being heard, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping over her sons. She has refused to be comforted over her sons, because they are no more.” (Jer. 31:15) Jacob’s wife Rachel had so desired children as to consider herself “dead” without them. (Gen. 30:1) So now Rachel might be spoken of figuratively as weeping over the loss of the Jews in death or captivity. Or, since Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, Jeremiah’s words may represent her as weeping particularly over the Benjamite inhabitants of Ramah. Jeremiah went on to explain that hope existed, for the exiles would return. (Jer. 31:16) At Matthew 2:18, the prophetic words in Jeremiah 31:15 are quoted as applying also to the time when Herod had young children of Bethlehem slaughtered.

2. An enclave city of the tribe of Simeon in the Negeb. (Josh. 19:1, 8) It was the same as Baalath-beer and was known as “Ramah of the south.”—See BAALATH-BEER.

3. A city in the territory of Asher listed only in Joshua 19:24, 29. It is difficult from the text to determine exactly where in Asher’s inheritance the city was located, though it seems to have been N toward Tyre. Modern scholars most frequently identify it with the village Ramia, which is about thirteen miles (21 kilometers) S-SE of Tyre and eleven miles (18 kilometers) E of Ras en-Naqura. A number of tombs and sarcophagi have been found in the vicinity.

4. A fortified city in Naphtali’s territory. (Josh. 19:32, 36) The single reference to it in Joshua does not provide positive identification of its location. The site frequently suggested is that of er-Rameh, about seventeen miles (27 kilometers) E of the seaport city of Acre (Acco). Er-Rameh is in an area of numerous olive trees and lies on the road from Acre to Safad.

5. The hometown of the prophet Samuel and his parents. In 1 Samuel 1:1, Samuel’s father Elkanah is described as a “man of Ramathaim-zophim of the mountainous region of Ephraim.” Throughout the rest of the account the shortened form “Ramah” is used. (1 Sam. 1:19) Perhaps the longer name is first used to distinguish this Ramah from other places of the same name, such as Ramah in Benjamin. An American Translation, evidently following the Septuagint, reads: “man of Ramah, a Zuphite.” This rendering, which differs from the Masoretic text, would refer to Elkanah’s being either a descendant of Zuph (Zophai) or from the district of Zuph.—1 Chron. 6:27, 28, 34, 35; 1 Sam. 9:5.

An ancient tradition presented by Eusebius identifies Ramah with the location of modern Rentis, in the hills of Ephraim about twenty miles (32 kilometers) NW of Jerusalem. This would be the same place as the Arimathea (Gr. form of Heb. Ra·mahʹ) mentioned in the Christian Greek Scriptures.—Luke 23:50-53.

Elkanah made his home in Ramah, where Samuel evidently was born, but each year he traveled to Shiloh to sacrifice. (1 Sam. 1:3, 19; 2:11) Though Samuel lived with Eli the priest at Shiloh for some time, eventually he took up residence at Ramah and used it as a base from which he traveled in a circuit judging Israel. (1 Sam. 3:19-21; 7:15-17; 8:4; 15:24-35; 16:4, 13; 19:18-24) When Samuel died he was buried at his house in Ramah, “his own city.”—1 Sam. 25:1; 28:3.

6. A shortened form for Ramoth-gilead.—2 Ki. 8:28, 29; 2 Chron. 22:5, 6; see RAMOTH-GILEAD.