Category:Ramah

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Ramah - (1.) A city first mentioned in Joshua 18:25, near Gibeah of Benjamin. It was fortified by Baasha, king of Israel (1 Kings 15:17; 2 Chronicles 16:1). Asa, king of Judah, employed Benhadad the Syrian king to drive Baasha from this city (1 Kings 15:18, 1 Kings 15:20). Isaiah (Isaiah 10:29) refers to it, and also Jeremiah, who was once a prisoner there among the other captives of Jerusalem when it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 39:8; Jeremiah 40:1). Rachel, whose tomb lies close to Bethlehem, is represented as weeping in Ramah (Jeremiah 31:15) for her slaughtered children. This prophecy is illustrated and fulfilled in the re-awakening of Rachel's grief at the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:18). It is identified with the modern village of er-Ram, between Gibeon and Beeroth, about 5 miles due north of Jerusalem. (See SAMUEL.) (2.) A town identified with Rameh, on the border of Asher, about 13 miles south-east of Tyre, "on a solitary hill in the midst of a basin of green fields" (Joshua 19:29). (3.) One of the "fenced cities" of Naphtali (Joshua 19:36), on a mountain slope, about seven and a half miles west-south-west of Safed, and 15 miles west of the north end of the Sea of Galilee, the present large and well-built village of Rameh. (4.) The same as Ramathaim-zophim (q.v.), a town of Mount Ephraim (1 Samuel 1:1, 1 Samuel 1:19). (5.) The same as Ramoth-gilead (q.v.), 2 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 22:6.