Hebrew word · H7213

רָאַם

vera'amah

to rise

A rare spelling of rûm, 'be high, rise, be exalted'. The extra aleph letter is a spelling oddity, also seen in Hos 10:14 (qā'm for qām). Rûm covers physical height and also honour and exaltation, as in being lifted up in status.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to rise

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Zechariah 14:10

Range of meaning

A rare spelling of rûm, 'be high, rise, be exalted'. The extra aleph letter is a spelling oddity, also seen in Hos 10:14 (qā'm for qām). Rûm covers physical height and also honour and exaltation, as in being lifted up in status.

Against the English

'Lifted up' (KJV, WEB), 'raised up' (BSB), 'hath been high' (YLT). ESV and NASB render the pair of verbs differently ('remain aloft', 'rise and remain'). Every version supplies 'Jerusalem' as the subject; the Hebrew only says 'she'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) treat ר-א-ם here as a by-form of רום. The Septuagint read the same consonants as the place name Ramah. Rûm is used of Zion's exaltation in Isa 2:2 ('raised above the hills', with a related verb) and in the Psalms (Ps 48:2, 'beautiful in elevation').

Where it appears

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 14:10 וְֽרָאֲמָה֩ and it will rise

    All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.

    Here: 'And she will rise high' (or 'stand high'). This is a rare spelling of the ordinary verb for being high. The subject is feminine: Jerusalem, pictured as a woman, towers over the lowered land around her.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.