RAMÁRAMAH
(Heb.: “height”).
(a) City of Benjamin (Joshua 18:25), near Gibeah, Geba, and Bethel (Judges 4:5; 19:13, 14; Isaiah 10:29). Baasha, king of Israel, fortified it to prevent the kings of Judah from undertaking war expeditions against the north (1 Kings 15:17, 21, 22; 2 Chron. 16:1-6). Apparently it was south of Bethel.
This is where the captives of Judah appear to have been gathered before being deported to Babylon (Jer. 40:1). At the end of the captivity, it was once again inhabited by Jews (Ezra 2:26; Neh. 11:33). According to Josephus, Ramah was forty furlongs from Jerusalem (Ant. 8:12, 3). Robinson places it in er-Rãm, on a height, 8 km north of Jerusalem.
(b) City of Samuel’s fathers (1 Sam. 1:19; 2:11; cf. 1:1); hometown and residence of the prophet (1 Sam. 7:17; 8:4; 15:34; 16:13; 19:18, 19, 22, 23; 20:1); there he was buried (1 Sam. 25:1; 28:3). To distinguish this locality from its namesakes, it was called Ramataim de Zofim (cf. 1:1 with v. 19, etc.). It is a place of uncertain identification:
(A) There are exegetes who assimilate it with Ramah of Benjamin; However, this identification is implausible, according to Robinson, because the latter was not in the mountainous country of Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1), nor does it correspond to the anonymous city in the country of Zuf where Saul was found by first time with Samuel (1 Sam. 9:5).
(B) The city was located south of Benjamin, because:
(I) 1 Sam. 1:1 does not clearly place Ramataim in the midst of the hills of Ephraim, but speaks of a man of the family of Zuph, an inhabitant of Ramataim, a city of the Zuphites, a branch of the Kohathite Levites. They were called Ephraimites because they had been assigned Mount Ephraim, from where they would have emigrated (cf. Josh. 21:5; 1 Chron. 6:22-26, 35, 66 ff.).
(II) If this interpretation is correct, the unnamed city in which Saul found Samuel is certainly Ramataim of Zophim, since this locality was located in the country of Zuf, territory outside the limits of Benjamin (1 Sam. 9: 4-6), and to the south.
Those who were going from a nearby city in this territory, or that belonged to it, and who were going to Gibeah of Benjamin, would pass before the tomb of Rachel, on the borders of Benjamin (1 Sam. 10:2), between Bethel and Bethlehem (Gen. 35:16, 19).
(III) It is thus understood why Saul had never met Samuel, which would not have been the case if the prophet had lived in Ramah of Benjamin, only 4 km from Saul’s house (cf. also 1 Sam. 8:1, 2).
(C) Another possible identification of Ramataim could be sought within the territory of Ephraim (Ant. 5:10, 2), where the Zuphites lived. The proposed identification is Beit Rima, 21 km northwest of Lida (cf. RAMATAIM), but not conclusively.
(c) City on the border of Asher (Josh. 19:29); It is not the Ramah of Naphtali (Josh. 19:36). It is believed to have been located in en-Rameh, about 8 km southwest of Safed and 27 km east of Akkõ (or Acco).
(d) Ramoth of Gilead (2 Kings 8:28; cf. v. 29; and 2 Chron. 22:5, cf. v. 6; see MIZPAH, b).
(e) City of Simeon (Josh. 19:8); sometimes called Ramat. It is undoubtedly the same as Ramat of the Negev (1 Sam. 30:27); also known under the name of Baalat-Beer.