C. Warren.
5. Ramah of the South (33i nOK-i; Ba/j-id (A la/neS) Kari \l§a). — ' Height of the soutli,' a city of Simeon (Jos 19'), at its extreme southern limit, apparently another name forBAALATU-BEEK, with which it is in apposition in this passage. It appears to be the same as Ramoth of the South (1 S 30", LXX here also has the singular, 'Pa/m i'6tov). The verse is not contained in the parallel list (in the description of Judah), Jos 15-|>-»- (after v.'2) ; and in the transcript in 1 Ch p^-^^ though (v.^^) Ba.al ( = Baalath-beer : LXX BaXar) is men- tioned, the alternative name ' Ramah of the South ' is not gi\en. Nor is it mentioned by Eusebius or Jerome. Its situation is quite un- certain. It has been placed on a low ridge called ^ubbet el-Baul, about 35 m. S. of Hebron, on the main route from Hebron to Petra ; or (Tristram, Bible Places, 23) at Kurnub, a little further to the S. (see Rob. ii. 197, 19S, 202) ; but either identifi- cation rests upon slight grounds (cf. DUlm. on Jos 15=^ ; Buhl, 184).
6. 1 S V^ 2" VS* IS'* 16" 19'"--'- 20' 25' 28'; in 1 S 1', also, Ramathaim,* ' the double eminence,' or ' the two Ramahs ' (o^nEnri : LXX in all the passages quoted ( -I- 19'-^), except 19'^- '="• ^ 20', has Ap/ia0aifi, which it also inserts in 1 S 1' after ' his city': comp. 1 Mac 11** 'Paixadf/j. [so MSS ; As corruptly 'PaSaAiftK], Pesh. iCLiAlDJ). The birth- place, residence, and burial-place of Samuel (1 S 1' 7" 28*). The question of its site isdithcult; and there have been many claimants for it. All that we definitely know about it is that it was on an eminence, as its name ' Ramah ' implies, and that it was in the hill-country of Ephraim, not too far either from Shiloh, the sanctuary to which the parents of Samuel went up yearly to sacrifice (1 S 1), or from Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah (Neby Samwil), the places visited by Samuel in his annual circuits as judge (IS "7'°-"). Although this has been doubted, it is also extremely difficult to avoid identifying it with the unnamed city where Saul found Samuel (1 S 9), and which is sjjoken of as if it were the seer's habitual residence (vv."- '").
As regards antiquity, Eusebius writes (Onom. 225, 11 tt.) : ' Apixae^^ 2«,/,a [as LXX]. The city of Elkana and Samuel. It lies near Diospolis [Jerome, ib. 96, 18, adds, 'in the district of Timnah ' (in regione Thamnitica)] ; thence came Joseph, said in the Gospels to be from Arimathea.' And in 1 Mac 11** Ramathem is mentioned, to- gether with Aplu-erema (Ephraim, 5 m. N.E. of Bethel) and Lydda( = Diospolis), as three toparchies which had belonged to Samaria, but were in B.C. 145 transferred to Judsea. These notices would agree witli a site Beit-Rima, a village on a hill 13 m. E.N.E. of Lydda (Diospolis), and 2 m. N. of Tinmah (Tibneh), proposed originally by Furrer in Schenkcl's Bibellexinon (cf. Sehiirer, i. 183), and adopted by G. A. Smith, HGIIL 254, and Buhl, 170. It is true, Eus. says ' near Diospolis ' : but • ' Ramathaim-zophim • (D-jW D:n:;-;n) is grammatically im- possible. Of course the expression cannnt mean ' the heights of the views' (I), as the reader of Tent-Work (p, 257) is gravely informed LXX tor □'Bis has Su*«, showing that the final c has arisen by dittography from the following word Read either ' a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite ('J^s ; see IS 9') of the hill- country of Ephraim' (Wellh., Driver, Lohr); or (though this is not the usual way of designating a person's native place in the OT) 'a man of the Ramathites (D'ni:-]n-[p : 1 Ch 11^), a Zuphite,' etc. (Klost, Budde, H. P. SmithVlhe dual •Rama- thaim,' though by no means unparalleled (of. Kirialhaim, Gederothttini), is remarkable, in view of the Ding. hd-Ramah En V.19 and everywhere else.
the word need not be understood too strictly;* and there are other passages in which the ' district of Timnali ' is reckoned by him as belonging to tlie ipiov Aiotr7r6\ews (219, 84 = Jerome 92, 4; 239, 93-4 = Jerome 107, 12-14: so Timnah itself, 260, 4 = 156, 7). Beit-Riina is 12 m. W. of Shiloh, and 12 m. N. W. of Bethel, on the W. edge of the hill- countiy of Ephraim.t
Another possible site for Ramah would be Rdm- allah, 3 m. S.W. of Bethel, and 12 m. S.W. of Shiloh, now a large Christian village, standing on a high ridge, with rock-cut tombs, and overlooking the whole country towards the W. as far as tha sea (BRP i. 453 f. ; PEP Mem. iii. 13). This was suggested by Ewald [Hist. ii. 421), m ith the remark that its present name, ' tlie high place of God,' seems still to mark it as a place of ancient sanctity. Ram-allah has not the same support of tradition that Beit-Rima enjoys ; but (if Ramah be the city of Samuel of 1 S 9) it seems to agree better with the terms of 1 S Q^"""- ^ ; for Rftm-allah, though, if it were Ramathaim, it would be in 'the hill- country of Ephraim '(IS 1'), might also, as seema to be implied of the city in 1 "S 9 (vv.'"™"'-'), be regariled as being in Benjamin (cf. Jg 4'). Saul would probably, on his route home to Gibeah, pass naturally near Rachel's sepulchre, on the (N.) 'border of Benjamin (IS 10-), somewhere near er-Rfim (No. i), and might abo 'meet' naturally men 'going up' to Bethel (v.^), whether his starting-point were Beit-Rima or Rim-allah.