Ram

1. An ancestor of David, Ku 4>9 ("Appdv), Mt P- ('A/)d,u, hence AV Aram, as in Lk 3^, where RV, following WH 'Ap>'el, has Arn-1). In 1 Ch 2" (Va^) >» (B 'A/jpdi', A ApQ/x) he is called the brother, but in vv.' (B 'Pdi/, A 'Vifi) ^ (B 'kpi/j., A 'Pd/i) the sun of Jerahmeel. See Gexealocv, IV. 5. 2. The name of tlie family {r^'.^i, :) to which Elihu belonged, Job 32- (B Pd/i, A 'P'o/id, C Wpaii). It is quite uncertain whether Ham Rliould be taken as a purely fictitious name, coined by the author of the Elihu speeches, or whether it is that of an unknown Arab (?) tribe. In Gn 22'-' Aram is a nephew of Buz (cf. ' Elihu the Buzite'), and some {e.g. Wetzstein, Knobel, Ewald) have supposed that Ram is a contraction for Aram, in support of which 2 Ch 22' is appealed to, where liumitcs (D'?-in) is supposed to be shortened from Aramitcs (D's-ig, the reading of 2 K 8^) ; but this seems hardly likely. In the passage just re- ferred to, it is more probable that the initial 5< has been changed by a .scribal error into n, as has happened in several other instances in the OT. Basiii, by a Kabbinicai conceit, makes liam = Abraham. J. A. Selbie.