Ramah stood in the hill country of Benjamin, a few miles north of Jerusalem, on a road that linked the capital to the north of Israel. Its name, meaning height, reflected the city’s elevated position.
There the prophet Samuel, the last judge of Israel, was born, lived, and died. Some scholars identify his birthplace, the Ramathaim Zophim of 1 Samuel 1:1, with a neighboring site rather than exactly with this Ramah.
It was in Ramah that Samuel judged the people, built an altar to the Lord, and received the leaders of Israel when they asked for a king. There David also took refuge while fleeing from Saul.
Centuries later, Ramah became a boundary marker between the rival kingdoms of Israel and Judah: one king fortified it, another dismantled it. At the end of the kingdom of Judah, it was the gathering point for the exiles taken to Babylon.
The prophet Jeremiah linked the name of Ramah to a prophetic weeping, Rachel’s lament for her lost children. Centuries later, the evangelist Matthew quoted that image to describe the anguish of Bethlehem at the slaughter of the innocents.
