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Ramoth-gilead - location profile

Location and Setting

• Although alternate sites for the location of Ramoth-gilead have been suggested, the strongest evidence points to the site of Tel er-Ramith, which is on the border of modern Syria, approximately twenty-five miles east of the Jordan.
• Ramoth implies "a broad height" and gilead locates the city in that central region of the Transjordan.
• The city was situated in the frontier territory allotted to the tribe of Gad, in northern Gilead, near the ancient border of Israel and Syria.
• Ramoth-gilead’s strategic location on the Transjordanian Highway made it the site of several battles between the Northern Kingdom and Syria in the ninth century B.C.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• Ramoth-gilead was designated as one of the cities of refuge, where one who had killed another unintentionally could await trial, protected from avenging relatives (Deut 4:43; Josh 20:8). The city was also given to the Levites (Josh 21:38; 1 Chr 6:80).
• Although the king of Aram (Syria) had agreed in a covenant to return all the cities that belonged to Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kgs 20:34), Ramoth-gilead remained in Syrian possession three years later. Ahab requested the help of the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, to retake the city. Ahab’s false prophets told him to go there and fight, claiming that the Lord had surely given him the victory. However, a true prophet, Micaiah, prophesied that the battle would bring death to Ahab and the scattering of his people. Despite this warning, Ahab accompanied Jehoshaphat to the battle. Ahab attempted to deceive the Syrians by disguising himself as a common soldier, rather than wearing his royal attire. He succeeded in his deception, but an errant arrow struck him in a joint of his armor and fatally wounded him (1 Kgs 22:1-40), fulfilling the word of the Lord through the prophet Micaiah.
• Ahab’s son, Joram, succeeded him and was also wounded in a battle at Ramoth-gilead against the Syrians (2 Kgs 8:28,29).
• As the struggle for Ramoth-gilead continued, the prophet Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to the city to anoint an army captain, Jehu, king over Israel. He also instructed Jehu to kill the injured King Joram and all the members of his father Ahab’s house to avenge the deaths that Ahab had inflicted on the Lord’s servants. After helping the Israelites take the city, Jehu zealously obeyed the Lord’s instructions, killing Joram, his mother Jezebel, and all who were associated with Ahab. He then went on to eradicate Baal worship from Israel (2 Kgs 9-10:28).

Bibliography

1. Jamieson, H. "Ramoth-gilead" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
2. Kent, Charles Foster. Biblical Geography and History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920.
3. Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
4. Monson, James M. Student Map Manual. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979.
5. Thompson, J.A. "Ramoth-gilead" The New Bible Dictionary. 2^nd ed. Ed. J.D. Douglas. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982.