Rama

Ra’ma. Mat 2:15 referring to Jer 31:15. It is the Greek form of Ramah. See Ramah.

RAMA or RAMAH ("an elevated spot".)

1. In Benjamin (Jer 31:15; Mat 2:18). The cry of the weeping mothers and of Rachel is poetically represented as heard as far as Rama, on the E. side of the N. road between Jerusalem and Bethel; Rama where Nebuzaradan gathered the captive Jews to take them to Babylon. Not far from Gibeah of Saul (1Sa 22:6; Hos 5:8; Isa 10:28-32). Now Er Ram, five miles from Jerusalem (Jdg 4:5; Jdg 19:13; Jos 18:25). There is an Er Ram one mile and a half E. of Bethlehem; but explain Jer 31:15 as above.

Baasha fortified it, to prevent his subjects from going S. to Jerusalem to the great feasts, and so joining the kingdom of Judah (1Ki 15:17-21; 2Ch 16:1-5). (See BAASHA; ASA.) The coincidence is dear between Rama’s being built by Israel, its overthrow by Judah, and the emigration from Israel to Judah owing to Jeroboam’s idolatry (1Ki 12:26; 2Ch 11:14-17); yet the events are named separately, and their connection only inferred by comparison of distinct passages, a minute proof of genuineness. Its people returned after the captivity (Ezr 2:26; Neh 7:30). The Rama, Neh 11:33, was further W.

2. The house of Elkanah, Samuel’s father (1Sa 1:19; 1Sa 2:11). Samuel’s birthplace, residence, and place of burial. Here he built an altar to Jehovah (1Sa 7:17; 1Sa 8:4; 1Sa 15:34; 1Sa 16:13; 1Sa 19:18; 1Sa 25:1; 1Sa 28:3). Contracted from Ramathaim Zophim, in Mount Ephraim (which included under its name the northern parts of Benjamin, Bethel, and Ataroth: 2Ch 13:19; 2Ch 15:8; Jdg 4:5; 1Sa 1:1). Muslim, Jewish, and Christian tradition places Samuel’s home on the height Neby Samwil, four miles N.W. of Jerusalem, than which it is loftier. Arculf (A.D. 700) identifies it as "Saint Samuel."

The professed tomb is a wooden box; below it is a cave excavated like Abraham’s burial place at Hebron, from the rock, and dosed against entrance except by a narrow opening in the top, through which pilgrims pass their lamps and petitions to the sacred vault beneath. The city where Samuel anointed Saul (1 Samuel 9-10) was probably not Samuel’s own city Rama, for the city of Saul’s anointing was near Rachel’s sepulchre adjoining Bethlehem (1Sa 10:2), whereas Mount Ephraim wherein was Ramathaim Zophim did not reach so far S. Near Neby Samwil, the probable site of Samuel’s Rama, is the well of Sechu to which Saul came on his way to Rama, now "Samuel’s fountain" near Beit Isku. Beit Haninah (probably Naioth) is near (1Sa 19:18-24). Hosea (Hos 5:8) refers to Rama. The appended "Zophim" distinguishes it from Rama of Benjamin. Elkanah’s ancestor Zuph may have been the origin of the "Zophim."

3. A fortress of Naphtali in the mountainous region N.W. of the sea, of Galilee. Now Rameh, eight miles E.S.E. of Safed, on the main track between Akka and the N. of the sea of Galilee, on the slope of a lofty hill.

4. On Asher’s boundary between Tyre and Sidon; a Rama is still three miles E. of Tyre.

5. Ramoth Gilead (2Ki 8:29; 2Ch 22:6).

6. Re-occupied by Benjamin on the return from Babylon (Neh 11:33). Identified by Grove with Ramleh.

[Ra’ma]

The place where Rachel was said to be ’weeping for her children.’ The prophecy is in the N.T. applied to the occasion of the massacre of the infants by Herod. Mat 2:18. The same as RAMAH No. 1.

(Hebrew: a high place)

City assigned by Josue to the tribe of Benjamin (Josue 18), six miles north of Jerusalem, the modern Er Ram. Site of the tomb of Rachel, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, who wept for her children "and would not be comforted" (Jeremias 31). Referred to in Matthew 2 in a prophecy of the slaughter of the infants by Herod.

rā´ma (Ῥαμᾶ, Rhamá): the King James Version; Greek form of RAMAH (which see) (Mat 2:18).