Ramoth-Gilead:

By: Emil G. Hirsch , Immanuel Benzinger

One of the cities of refuge, in the east-Jordan district, in the tribe of Gad; apportioned to the Levites (Josh. xx. 8, xxi. 38; Deut. iv. 43; I Chron. vi. 80). When Solomon divided the country into districts, Ramoth-gilead was made the center of one of them and the seat of a governor (I Kings iv. 13). In the Syrian wars Benhadad captured it from the Israelites as an important frontier post, and Ahab was killed in an attempt to recapture it (I Kings xxii. 3 et seq. ). His son Joram succeeded in taking it (II Kings viii. 28 et seq. ), and had returned to Jezreel to recover from his wounds when Jehu was proclaimed king in Ramoth-gilead (II Kings ix. 1 et seq. ). The subsequent history of the city is unknown, but probably it soon fell again into the hands of the Syrians. According to the "Onomasticon" of Eusebius, Ramoth was fifteen Roman miles west of Philadelphia, a localization which seems to indicate the present Al-Salṭ, about 10 kilometers south of the Jabbok, and which has, therefore, frequently been identified with Ramoth-gilead. Al-Salṭ, however, was the ancient Gedor, and Ramoth-gilead can hardly have been so far south. The city for whose possession the Syrians and Israelites were continually fighting lay near the frontier, and consequently in the northern part of the east-Jordan district. The reference in I Kings iv. 13 also points to a site in the north. As the governor of Ramoth-gilead ruled over the districtof Argob in Bashan, he can not have had his capital south of Jabbok. There were, moreover, two other governors farther south, so that Al-Ramtah, 11 kilometers southeast of Dar'at, and Raimun, west of Jerash, have been proposed as the site of the city. It is also frequently identified with Mizpeh-gilead, since a Ramath-mizpeh is mentioned in Josh. xiii. 26; but this identification is doubtful. See Mizpah.