RAMOTH IN GILEAD. — A Levitical and refuge city in the tribe of Gad (Deut. 4:13; Josh. 20:8; 21:38; 1 Chron. 6:66), chief town of the Solomonic district north and south of the Yarmuk (1 Kgs. 4:13), the cause of bitter struggles between Israelites and Arameans, who long contested its strategic possession (ibid. 22:3–24; 2 Kgs. 8:28; 9:1–14).
The site indicated by Eusebius near Jabbok, 15 miles west of Philadelphia (Amman), probably es-Salt or Hjbert Gilead, does not accord with the biblical data, which imply a locality farther north in the ‘Aglun. The identification with the village of er-Remtah, 10 km south of Der‘a, now on the frontier between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Syria, abandoned for lack of archaeological evidence in favor of the imposing tell of Hosn ‘Aglun, 16 km southwest of er-Remzah, has been revived with solid archaeological and topographical proofs. The ancient site of R. would not be the village of er-Remzah but Tell Ramit, 7 km farther south. It stands in the midst of a broad plain suited for chariot warfare, at the crossroads of the roads between Amman and Damascus, preserves in its Arabic name a memory of the ancient biblical name, and has yielded Iron Age archaeological remains.
**