RAMAH (rd'rnah), (Heb. raw-maw', a high place, height), the name of several towns and villages in Palestine, which it is not in all cases easy to distinguish from one another.
1. A town of Benjamin (Josh. xviii :25), in the vicinity of Gibeah and Geba (Judg. xix ; Is. x :29; Hos. v :8; Ezra ii :26 ; Neh. vii :3o ; xi: 33) ; on the way from Jerusalem to Bethel (Judg. iv :5), and not far from the confines of the two kingdoms (1 Kings xv :17, 21, 22). It is also mentioned in Jer. xxxi :15 ; xl :1. Jerome places it six Roman miles north of Jerusalem, and Josephus, who calls it Patca0c1w, ram-ah-thone', places it forty stadia from Jerusalem (Antiq. 3). In accordance with all these intimations, at the distance of a two hours' journey north of Jerusalem, upon a hill a little to the east of the great northern road, a village still exists under the name of Er-Ram, in which we cannot hesi tate to recognize the representative of the ancient Ramali. This is one of the valuable identifica tions for which Biblical geography is indebted to Dr. Robinson (Researches, ii :315-317). The dif ficult text (Jer. xxxi :15), 'A voice was heard in Ramalt . . . Rachel weeping for her children,' which the Evangelist (Matt. ii :8) transfers to the massacre at Bethlehem, has been thought to require a southern Rainah not far from that place, near which indeed is Rachel's sepulcher. But no such Ramah has been found ; and Dr. Robinson thinks that the allusion of the prophet was orig inally applicable to this Ramah. The context re fers to the exiles carried away captive by Ne buzar-adan to Babylon, who passed by way of Ramah, which was perhaps their rendezvous (Jer. x1:1). As Ramah was in Benjamin, the prophet introduces Rachel, the mother of that tribe, be wailing the captivity of her descendants.
2. Ramah, of Samuel, so called, where the prophet and was buried (r Sam. i :19; ii: II; vii :17 ; viti :4 ; xv :34 ; xvi :13 ; xxv ; xxviii : 3). It is probably the same with the Ramathaim Zophim to which his father Elkanah belonged (i Sam. 19). The position of this Ramah was early lost sight of by tradition, and a variety of opinions have prevailed since the time of Euseb ius and Jerome, who regard it as the Arimathea of the New Testament, and place it near Lydda, where a Ramah anciently existed. Hence some have held the site to be that of the present Ram leh, which is itself a modern town (see ARIMA TH./EA). Alany writers have, however, been dis
posed to seek Satnuel's Ramah in the Ramah of Benjamin (Pocock, ii :71, 72; Bachiene, i :155; Raunler, Paldst. p. 146 ; Winer, s. v.); but this was only half an hour distant from the Gibeah where Saul resided, which does not agree with the historical information (comp. i Sam. ix :to). Again, general opinion has pointed to a place called Neby Samuel, a village upon a high point two hours northwest of Jerusalem, and which was, indeed, also usually supposed to be the Ra mah of Benjamin, till Dr. Robinson established the separate claims of Er-Ram to that distinction. But this appropriation does not agree with the mention of Rachel's sepulcher in I Sam. x :2, for that is about as far to the south of Jerusalem as Neby Samuel is to the northwest. The like ob jection applies, though in a somewhat less de gree, to the modern Soba, west of Jerusalem, which Robinson points out as possibly the site of Ramathaim-zophim and Ramah (Researches, ii : The chief difficulties in connection with this matter arise of course out of the account given of Saul's journey after his father's asses. The city in which Saul found Samuel is not named, but is said to have been `in the land of Zuph' (i Sam. ix :5), and is assumed to have been Ramah-zophim. In dismissing him from this place, Samuel foretells an adventure that should befall hint near Rachel's sepulcher. Now, as this sepulcher was near Bethlehem, and as Saul's abode was in Benjamin, the southern border of which is several miles to the north thereof, it is manifest that if Saul in going home was to pass near Rachel's sepulcher, the place where Samuel was must have been to the south of it. In the midst of all this uncertainty, Dr. Robinson thinks that interpreters may yet be driven to the con clusion that the city where Saul found Samuel (I Sam. ix :to), was not Ramah, his home.
3. A town of Asher (Josh. xix :29). Robinson locates it at Rameh, about thirteen miles south west of Tyre.
4. A city of Naphtali (Josh. xix :36).
5. A town of Gilead (2 Kings viii :29), the name of which is given more fully in Josh. xiii : 26, as Ramoth-mizpeh.
6. Ramah of the South. (See RAMATH-NEGEB.) 7. A place reinhabited by the Benjamites after the Captivity (Neh. xi :33). It may be Ramah of Benjamin, or Ramali of Samuel.