What is…
Ramah
also known as: Rama
(Matthew 2:18), the Greek form of Ramah
Several biblical cities were referred to by this name.
Ramah, a city first mentioned in Joshua 18:25, near Gibeah of Benjamin
It was fortified by Baasha, king of Israel (1 Kings 15:17-22; 2 Chronicles 16:1-6). Asa, king of Judah, employed Benhadad the Syrian king to drive Baasha from this city (1 Kings 15:18, 20).
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 39:8-12; 40:1).
The matriarch 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 city of Al-Ram (aka A-Ram, al-Ramm and er-Ram), between Gibeon and Beeroth, about 5 miles due north of Jerusalem. (See Samuel.)
Ramah, a town identified with Rameh, on the border of Asher, about 13 miles southeast of Tyre, “on a solitary hill in the midst of a basin of green fields” (Joshua 19:29)
Ramah, one of the “fenced cities” of Naphtali (Joshua 19:36), on a mountain slope, about 7½ miles west-southwest of Safed, and 15 miles west of the north end of the Sea of Galilee
This became the present large and well-built village of Rameh.
Ramah, the same as Ramathaim-zophim, a town of Mount Ephraim (1 Samuel 1:1, 19)
Ramah, the same as Ramoth-gilead, 2 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 22:6
ALSO SEE
- Ramath of the south
- Ramoth
- Ramath-lehi
- Ramath-mizpeh
- Ramathaim-zophim
- Ramathite
- Ramoth-gilead
- What are FENCED CITIES? Answer
- Samuel
- Cities of the Bible