RAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM or RAMAII (=bin ' ApnclactIA fAckci ; Alex. /a/04, both MSS. making the art 1 part of the word ; .Ramathaim Sophim ; and ; 'A.Attab ; Ra matha). In its full form this name only occurs in r Sam. i. 1 ; in all other places it is written simply Raman, of which Ranzathainz appears to be the dual, and Zophim is added by way of distinction. It was the birth-place of the prophet Samuel (I Sam. i. 19), his own permanent and official resi dence (vii. 17 ; viii. 4), and the place of his sepul ture (xxv. r). This is all we know of it with any degree of certainty. .
Gesenius questions the identity of Ramathaim Zophim and Rama (Thesaurus, p. 1275) ; but a comparison of 1 Sam. i. r with ver. 19 shows without doubt that the same place is referred to. This, too, was the view of the Septuagint transla tors, who uniformly render the name 'ApAtanrati.t. The word Zophim has been variously explained. The most natural explanation appears to be that Zuph, one of Samuel's ancestors, had migrated from his home in Ephrata (r Sam. i. r ; 1 Chron. vi. 35), and settled in a district to which he gave his own name, and which was afterwards called the land of Zuph (1 Sam. ix. 5). Ramah, or Ra mathaim, was the chief town of this district, and was hence called Ramathaim-Zophim, that is, Ramah of the Zuphites' (see Robinson, B.R., ii. 7).
The position of Ramathaim-Zophim is one of the puzzles of Biblical geography. Though the ablest students have exercised all their learning and in genuity upon it, it remains to this day without a satisfactory solution. As the city is one of great interest, it may be well to give the principal theories as to its site, and then to state the data on which alone the site can be determined.
(1.) Eusebius and Jerome locate it near Dios polis or Lydda (Onomast., s. v. Arnzatha Sophinz) and identify it with the ArimathHa of the N. T. (Matt. xxvii. 57). The latter may be correct, for the Septuagint Api.tab-ais seems to be the same name as the N. T. 'AptctaB-aia, and represents the Hebrew n+nvin, with the article. There is no doubt there was a city called Armatha or Rama them, on the plain near Lydda, at an early period, and its modern representative may be Ramleh, as suggested by Reland and others (Reland, pp. 5So, 959 ; see, however, Robinson, B. R., ii. 238) ; but Ramah of Samuel could not have been so far distant from Gibeah of Saul, and was besides. situated in the mountains. (2.) Some would iden tify this city with Ramah of Benjamin (Gesenius, Thes., p. 1273; Winer, R. W., s. v. Rama) ; but this Ramatt was much too close to Saul's residence at Gibeah to suit the requirements of the sacred narrative (i Sam, ix. ; xix. 18). (3.) Dr. Robin son has suggested that the site of Ramah may be that now occupied by the village of Soba, which stands on a lofty and conspicuous hill-top, about six miles west of Jerusalem. Soba, he thinks, may be a corruption of the old name Zzzph ; its eleva tion would answer well to the designation Raman ; it might be regarded as included in the mountains of Ephraim, or at least as a natural extension of them ; and a not very wide detour would take the traveller from Soba to Gibeah by the tomb of Rachel (Bib. Res., ii. 7-9). The arguments are
plausible but not convincing ; and it must be ad mitted that even Dr. Robinson's remarkable geo graphical knowledge has failed to throw light on the site of Ramathaim-Zophim. (4.) Mr. Wolcott, seeing on the spot the difficulties attending Ro binson's theory, and finding a remarkable ruin called Rama' el Khultl, near Hebron, concluded that this was the site of Samuel's city. A summary of his reasons is given by Robinson in the Biblical Cabinet (vol. xliii. p. 5r ; see also Bib. Res., iii. 279). They are not more convincing than those advanced in favour of SOba, yet they have been adopted and expanded by Van de Velde (Narrat., ii. 48-54 ; Memoir, (5.) Gesenius thinks that Jebel Fureidis, or, as it is usually called, Frank Mountain, the conspicuous conical hill three miles south-east of Bethlehem, is the true site of Ramah (Thesaurus, p. 1276). This, however, is pure con jecture, without any evidence to support it. (6.) Ewald is in favour of the little village of Ram-allah, a mile west of Beeroth (Geschichte,ii. 55o, note). It is doubtless situated in Mount Ephraim, retains the old name, and the name Allah, ' God,' might be an indication of some old peculiar sanctity ; but it is open to the same objections as all others north of Rachel's tomb. (7.) One of the most ancient, and certainly one of the most plausible theories is that which locates Ramathaim-Zophim at Neby SamwŁ1. It is most probably to this place Procopius alludes in the statement that Justinian caused a well and a wall to be erected for the convent of St. Samuel (DezEdific. gust., v. 9 ; cf. Robinson, B. R., i. 459) From the 7th century, when Adamnanus de scribed Palestine, and spoke of the city of Samuel, which is called Ramatha' (Early Travels, Bohn, p. 5), down through the Middle Ages to the present day, the name of the prophet has been connected with this spot, and the uniform tradition of Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, has made it the place of his birth and burial (see authorities cited in Robinson, I. c.) The Crusaders built a church over the alleged tomb, which after the fall of the Latin kingdom was converted into a mosque ; and its walls and tall minaret are still visible from afar (Quaresmius, ii. p. 727 ; Pococke, ii. p. 48). Neby Samwil is unquestionably the site of a very ancient city ; its position on the summit of a high conical hill would give it a just title to the name Ramah ; it probably lay within the region termed the Mountains of Ephraim,' and it would form an appropriate residence for the great judge of IsraeL Yet there are very formidable objections to its identification with Ramathaim-Zophim. It ap pears to be much too near Gibeah, the capital of Saul's kingdom, to form a safe refuge for David when he fled from that monarch. It is not an hour's ride distant, and it is in full view. Then if the scene of Saul's first interview with Samuel when in search of his father's asses be fixed at Samuel's home in Ramah, as appears most natural, Neby Samwf 1 cannot possibly be the place. It has been shown besides, that Neby Samwil is most probably the site of Mizpah (MIZPAH, No. 4).