* Already at the moment of her comin-;; the great goddess (Istar) Lifted up the mighty bow • which Aim had made according to his wish.'
The significance of the rainbow as a token of God's co\-enant with men may be variously viewed. n::-i3 and rb^op (Sir 43" 50') are the regular words for the bow as a weapon of war, and the rainbow may have been regarded as God's bow, formerly used in hostility (as in Ps 7", Hab 3'- "), and now laid aside. Or it may have appeared to be a link between heaven and earth ; or, more probably, its suggestiveuess as an emblem of hope may have arisen simply from the contrast between its beauty and brightness and the forbidding gloom of the rain-clouds. In any case, the story of the rainbow is worthy of its place in Scripture. Though poetic rather than literal, it was a beautiful and fitting vehicle for conveying to men in the childhood of the world the truth that God's mercy glories against judgment, and is the ground of all human hope.
Though the Babylonian Flood legend affords the closest parallel to the biblical story of the Deluge and the rainbow, some interesting correspondences may be gathered from the mythology of other nations. In the Iliad we find (a) the simple view of ' rainbows that the son of Kronos hath set in the clouds' (xi. 27), and (6) the conception of Iris aa the personified messenger of the gods (iii. 121). In the Lithuanian account of the Flood the rainbow is sent as a comforter and counsellor to the surviving couple. In the Edda the rainbow {Asbru, Bif-rost) is conceived of as a heavenly bridge which is to break at the end of the world. Akin to this, but with a biblical colouring, was the German belief of the Middle Ages, that for a number of years before the day of judgment the rainbow will no longer be seen.
*So the rainbow appear The world hath no fear Until thereafter forty year.'
The popular tendency to connect Christian and mythological conceptions is seen in the fact that in Zante the rainbow is called ' the girdle, or bow, of the virgin.'
The extravagant theory of Goldziher, that the history of Joseph is a solar myth, is fittingly crowned by the supposition that tiie ' bow ' of Jose|)h (Gn 49-"') is the rainbow (Mythology among the Hebrews, 169-70).
LiTKRATL'R E. — Sayce, ' ArchiBological Commentary on Genesis,* in Exime, Timei, vii. 308, 463; Kyle, 'Early Narratives ol Oenesis.' i/>. in. 450; Nicol, Recent ArchcEolorjy and the Bible, 71 ; Dilhnaun, Genesis, in loc. ; Grimm, Teutonic Mijthotofjy, Kng. tr. 680, 731-734 ; Thorpe, Northtm Mythology, L U, 1-2, 81, 201.
James Patkick. RAISIN.— See Vine, and Food in vol. ii. j). 32".
RAKEM.— See Rekem.
•The word rendered 'bow' by Sayce (f.c. 483) is, however, ver>' uncertain, other Assvriologists, aa Zimniern {ap. Gunkel, SchO/if. u. Chaos, 427), Jensen (KiMmil. 3S1 ; KIIS vi. 241), rendering 'Oeschmeide,' 'Intaglio.' Still, this may possibly denote the rainbow (Ball, Light jTom the East, 40 n.>
KAKKATII
ILAJMAII
197
RAKKATH (np-; ; B 'nMoffooostfl, Uie -SaKie repre- Bentiiij; npT by confusion of i with i, and the tirst part ot the compound standing for ran ' Hamiiiatli ' ; A'Peitnaff).— A 'fenced city' of Naphtali, Jos 19^. The later Habbis placed it at or near Tiberias (see Neubauer, Giog. du 'lalm. 208 f.).
C. R. CONDER.
RAKKON.— See Me-Jarkon.
RAM (-•; ' lofty,' ' exalted '). — 1. An ancestor of David, Ku 4>9 ("Appdv), Mt P-* ('A/)d,u, hence AV Aram, as in Lk 3*^, where RV, following WH 'Ap>'el, has Arn-1). In 1 Ch 2" (Va^) >» (B 'A/jpdi', A *ApQ/x) he is called the brother, but in vv.*' (B 'Pdi/, A 'Vifi) ^ (B 'kpi/j., A 'Pd/i) the sun of Jerahmeel. See Gexealocv, IV. 5. 2. The name of tlie family {r^'.^i--:) to which Elihu belonged, Job 32- (B Pd/i, A 'P'o/id, C Wpaii). It is quite uncertain whether Ham Rliould be taken as a purely fictitious name, coined by the author of the Elihu speeches, or whether it is that of an unknown Arab (?) tribe. In Gn 22'-' Aram is a nephew of Buz (cf. ' Elihu the Buzite'), and some {e.g. Wetzstein, Knobel, Ewald) have supposed that Ram is a contraction for Aram, in support of which 2 Ch 22' is appealed to, where liumitcs (D'?-in) is supposed to be shortened from Aramitcs (D's-ig, the reading of 2 K 8^) ; but this seems hardly likely. In the passage just re- ferred to, it is more probable that the initial 5< has been changed by a .scribal error into n, as has happened in several other instances in the OT. Basiii, by a Kabbinicai conceit, makes liam = Abraham. J. A. Selbie.
RAM.— See Batterino-Ram, and Sheep.
RAMS' HORNS See Music in vol. iii. p. 462*.
RAMS' SKINS.— See Dyeino.
RAMAH (isnri, always with definite art. except ii Neh ll" and Jer SI").— This word, with its various modifications and compounds Ram, Ramah, Ranioth, Ramathaim, Arimatliiea, is derived from the root en ' to be lofty.' It appears as a 'high place' four times (Ezk 16"- ^- "•»*). As a proper name it is used of —
1. (B ApaijX, A 'Pa;ia) One of the fenced cities of the tribe of Naphtali (Jos 19"). It is not otherwise mentioned in OT. Robinson (iii. 79) has identified it as lidmeh, a village on the great route between 'Aklui and Dama-scus, and about 8 miles W.S.W. of Safed. The village lies upon the southern lower cultivated slope of the moun- tain whose ridge forms a boundary between U]>per and Lower Galilee, but still several hundred feet above the plain. It is a large village, surrounded by extensive olive groves, and has no traces of antiquity within or around. It is mentioned by Eusebius (Onom. 288, 9) and Jerome {ih. 146, 19), Brocardus (c. 0) and Adrichomius (p. 123).