Hebrew word · H7437

רָמַת לֶחִי

ramat

Ramath-lehi

A compound place name. Ramat is the bound form of ramah, 'height, elevated place, hill' (as in the town names Ramah and Ramath-mizpeh).

Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Ramath-lehi = "height of a jawbone"

a place by the rock Elam in northern Judah near the border of the Philistines; named by Samson after his slaughter of the 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass

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 Judges 15:17

Range of meaning

A compound place name. Ramat is the bound form of ramah, 'height, elevated place, hill' (as in the town names Ramah and Ramath-mizpeh). Lechi is 'jaw, jawbone, cheek.' So the plain sense is 'Hill/Height of the Jaw(bone).' The Hebrew root r-m-h also means 'to throw, to hurl' (Exod 15:1, 'horse and rider he has hurled into the sea'), so ramat can also be heard as 'a throwing of.'

Against the English

English versions all transliterate it as 'Ramath-lehi,' which is accurate but leaves the English reader with a sound and no meaning. Some modern versions add a footnote ('Jawbone Hill' or similar). No English version can carry the pun on 'threw.'

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint translates rather than transliterates: Anairesis siagonos, 'taking up / removal (or destruction) of the jaw.' The Latin Vulgate gives the name and adds 'which is interpreted elevatio maxillae, the lifting up of the jawbone.' Both ancient translators clearly heard the name as describing an action done with the jaw, not only a hill. Josephus, retelling the story in Antiquities book 5, calls the place simply 'Jaw' (Siagōn).

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 15:17 רָ֥מַת לֶֽחִי׃ Ramath, Lehi

    And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.

    Here: First half of the name. Most naturally 'height, hill, high place of,' but next to 'he threw' it also sounds like a Hebrew word for 'throwing.' A Hebrew ear could catch both.

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