Ram (1) - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

RAM (1)

ram (ram, "high," "exalted"):

(1) An ancestor of David (Ruth 4:19 (Arran); Matthew 1:3,4 (Aram); in 1 Chronicles 2:9 he is called the "brother," but in 2:25, the "son of Jerahmeel" (compare 2:27). Ram as the son of Hezron appears more likely than Ram the son of Jerahmeel, since, according to the narratives of 1 and 2 Samuel, David cannot have been a Jerahmeelite.

(2) Name of Elihu's family (Job 32:2). It is an open question as to whether Ram should be taken as a purely fictitious name, invented by the author of the Elihu speeches, or whether it is that of some obscure Arab tribe. In Genesis 22:21 Aram is a nephew of Buz (compare Elihu the Buzite), and the conjecture was at one time advanced that Ram was a contraction of Aram; but this theory is no longer held to be tenable. The suggestion that the initial "a" (the Hebrew letter, 'aleph) has been changed by a scribal error into "h" (the Hebrew letter, he) is more acceptable. Rashi, the rabbinical commentator, takes the quaint position that Ram is identical with Abraham.

Horace J. Wolf

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'RAM (1)'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.