Where was Ramah?

Question

Where was Ramah?

Accepted Answer

The Ramah most often meant in the Bible, Ramah of Benjamin, is usually identified with the village of er-Ram on a hill by the ridge road about 8.6 km north of Jerusalem in a straight line, today a Palestinian town just north of the city in the West Bank; the map's point stands there, 3.5 km north of Gibeah and 7.7 km south of Bethel. The name means “height”, and several other places bore it: Ramah in Naphtali and in Asher in Galilee, Ramath of the south in Simeon, and Ramoth-gilead east of the Jordan. History Globe has an article on Ramah; this answer sorts out which is which. Ramah of Benjamin was a border town. Deborah judged Israel “under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el”; Baasha of Israel “built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah”; Isaiah, watching an army come down from the north, cries, “Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled”. After the fall of Jerusalem Nebuzar-adan released Jeremiah at Ramah, where the captives bound for Babylon were gathered, and Jeremiah heard “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children”, words Matthew applies to the children of Bethlehem, about 17 km to the south. Rachel's tomb lay “in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah”, near Ramah on that reading, though Genesis puts it “in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem”. Samuel's Ramah is disputed. His father came from “Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim”; Samuel lived, judged and was buried “in his house at Ramah”. Many identify it with er-Ram, as the map does; others place it at Nebi Samwil, north-west of Jerusalem, or much farther north-west at Rentis, which many also take for New Testament Arimathea. The map's year, about 1050 BC, is a conventional point: the year the map gives for Saul's becoming king, while Samuel still judged from Ramah.