🔼The name Ramoth-negev: Summary
- Meaning
- Heights Of The Rolling Hills, Southern Ramoth
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb רום (rum), to be high, and (2) the noun נגב (negeb), which might mean rolling hill(s) from the verb גבב (gabab), to be concave.
🔼The name Ramoth-negev in the Bible
The name Ramoth-negev occurs twice in the Bible, once with and once without the maqqep (the Hebrew hyphen). Without the maqqep our name belongs to a settlement in the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah, but which was handed over to the tribe of Simeon (Joshua 19:8). With the maqqep our name is mentioned among the towns that received parts of the spoils that David took from the Amalekites who had unwisely raided David's base at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:27).
🔼Etymology of the name Ramoth-negev
The name Ramoth-negev consists of two parts, each of which also occurs separately as names. The first part is the same as the name Ramoth, which comes from the verb רום (rum), meaning to be high:
רום
The verb רום (rum) means to be high or high up in either a physical, social or even attitudinal sense, and may also refer to the apex in a natural process: the being ripe and ready-for-harvest of fruits. Subsequently, our verb may imply a state beyond ripe (higher than ripe, overripe), which thus refers to rotting and being maggot riddled. This means that to the ancients, higher did not simply mean better, and an arrogant political status that was higher than it should be equaled rot and worms (Acts 12:23).
Derived nouns, such as רום (rum) and related forms such as רמה (rama), describe height or pride. Noun רמות (ramut) describes some high thing. The noun ארמון ('armon) refers to a society's apex: a citadel or palace. The noun ראם (re'em) describes the wild ox, which was named possibly for the same reason why we moderns call a rising market a "bull" market. The similar verb ראם (ra'am) means to rise.
The important noun רמון (rimmon) means pomegranate and the pomegranate became the symbol for harvest-ready fruit (see our full dictionary article for more on this). Overripe items might suffer the noun רמה (rimma), worm or maggot, or the verb רמם (ramam), to be wormy.
The second part of the name Ramoth-negev is the same as the name Negev, which is used to mean The South and appears to be related to the following root group:
גבב
The verb גבב (gabab) doesn't occur in the Bible but it appears to have meant to be concave or convex; to be bulbous or hollow. Noun גב (gab) denotes anything that is bulbous (hills, buttocks).
The verb גוב (gub) means to dig. Noun גב (geb) means pit or ditch. This verb appears to be associated with the verb יגב (yagab), meaning to till (what a farmer does). Noun יגב (yaqeb) probably refers to the field where the farmer tills.
Noun גבא (gebe') appears to describe a hollow in which water collects and is commonly translated with cistern, pool or marsh.
Verb גבה (gaba) means to collect. Nouns גב (geb), גוב (gob), גבי (gobay) and גובי (gobay) refer to locusts. Possibly a whole other verb גבה (gabah) means to be high, exalted or lofty, although this verb could actually describe a person who collected a heap, or who plunders a society like a swarm of locusts. In the Talmud the word for tax collector was derived from this verb. Adjective גבה (gaboah) means high or haughty. Noun גבה (gobah) means height or haughtiness. And noun גבהות (gabhut) means haughtiness.
Verb גבע (gabay) appears to mean the same as גבב (gabab), to be concave or convex. The very common noun גבעה (gib'a) means hill.
The unused verb גבן (gaban) probably meant to be curved, contracted or coagulated. Adjective גבן (giben) means humpbacked. Noun גבינה (gebina) means curd or cheese. Noun גבנן (gabnon) means peak or rounded summit.
A certain grammatical construction that creates a sort of continuous tense of the verb גבב (gabab) is formed from prefixing a נ (nun) and making the double ב (beth) a single one. The result, a verb נגב (nagab) would mean to undulate, to wave, to have shifting dunes. That verb doesn't exist, but a mysterious noun נגב (negeb) does. This noun would thus denote a region with rolling hills, and came to be synonymous with "south".
🔼Ramoth-negev meaning
The name Ramoth-negev may literally mean Heights Of The Rolling Hills, or something to that extent, but the negev-part was probably added to distinguish this Ramoth from the few others. This one is Southern Ramoth.