Hebrew word · H7435

רָמָתִי

haramati

Ramathite

Words formed from place names (with the ending -i) that say where a person came from: "the man of Ramah", "the man of Shepham/Siphmoth".

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 21, 2026

What it means

Someone descended from Ramath(?), only mentioned at 1Ch.27.27

§ Ramathite, of Ramah "the height"

an inhabitant of Ramah

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

Range of meaning: Words formed from place names (with the ending -i) that say where a person came from: "the man of Ramah", "the man of Shepham/Siphmoth".
Against the English: Most versions keep "Ramathite" and "Shiphmite". NLT turns them into hometowns ("from Ramah", "from Shepham"), which is clearer but commits to one particular place for Shiphmite.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ramah could be the Benjaminite town north of Jerusalem (Josh 18:25), Ramathaim-zophim in Ephraim (Samuel's home, 1 Sam 1:1), Ramah in Naphtali, or Ramah of the Negev. Shiphmite is found only here. Proposed origins are Shepham (Num 34:10–11) or Siphmoth, one of the Judahite towns David sent gifts to (1 Sam 30:28).

1 Chronicles · 1

1 Chronicles 27:27 הָרָֽמָתִ֑י the Ramathite

Shimei the Ramathite was in charge of the vineyards. Zabdi the Shiphmite was in charge of the produce of the vineyards for the wine vats.

Here: "The man from Ramah", a place name meaning "height". Several towns were called Ramah, so we cannot say which one he came from. The most likely candidates lie in the central hill country, which was good vine country.

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