RAAMAH rā’ əm ə (רַעְמָ֖ה [Gen 10:7], and רַעְמָ֖א [1 Chron 1:9]; LXX ̔Ρεγμὰ̀; 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) μὰ̀, 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.