Raamah
RAAMAH (rā'a-ma, Heb. ra‘mā’). A son of Cush and grandson of Ham (1Chr.1.9); the father of Sheba and Dedan (Gen.10.7; cf. 1Chr.1.9). The prophet Ezekiel identifies Raamah as one of the merchant tribes that traded in spices, gold, and precious stones with Tyre (Ezek.27.22).
RAAMAH rā’ əm ə (רַעְמָ֖ה [Gen 10:7], and רַעְמָ֖א [1 Chron 1:9]; LXX ̔Ρεγμὰ; may mean either to thunder or vibration according to a Heb. and Aram. derivation, or to constrain, humiliate, vex according to an Arab. derivation).
Of the sons of Ham, a son of Cush and father of Sheba and Dedan; hence the name of a tribe in Arabia. The traders of both Raamah and Sheba brought to the markets of Tyre their best of all kinds of spices, precious stones and gold (Ezek 27:22). Its location has not yet been fixed. On the basis of Gr. ̔Ρεγ(α, G1) μὰ, many have identified it with a city of that name mentioned by Ptolemy (VI, 7, 14) and located in E Arabia on the Persian Gulf. But this identification is unlikely because the name for this town in the inscr. would not have come over into Heb. in its present form. A better identification is that of Raamah near Me’ in SW Arabia which is mentioned in a Minean inscr. as the place where raiders from Sheba and Haulan attacked one of their caravans. This may be ̔Ραμμανιται, mentioned in Strabo XVI, 4, 24. If this identification is correct the list of tribes in Genesis 10:7 proceeds from the African to the Asiatic side of the Red Sea.
Bibliography
W. F. Albright, “Dedan,” Alt Volume (1953), 1-12.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
Thus spelled only in 1Ch 1:9; elsewhere "Raamah" (ra`mah). A son of Cush and father of Sheba and Dedan (Ge 10:7 = 1Ch 1:9). In Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre (Eze 27:22) the tribe of Raamah is mentioned along with Sheba as a mercantile people who provided the inhabitants of Tyre with spices, precious stones and gold. It has generally been identified with Regina, mentioned by Ptolemy and Steph. Byzantr. as a city in Southeastern Arabia on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The Septuagint (Rhegma) itself supposes this site. But the Arabic name of the city here indicated is spelled with a "g" and so gives rise to a phonological difficulty. A more probable identification has been found in the Sabean ra`mah in Southwestern Arabia near Me`in in the north of Marib. Me`in was the capital of the old Minaean kingdom.