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Bible Dictionaries
Aram
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or A'ram. (high).
1. The name by which the Hebrews designated, generally, the country lying to the northeast of Palestine; the great mass of that high tableland which, rising with sudden abruptness from the Jordan and the very margin of the Lake of Gennesaret, stretched at an elevation of no less than 2000 feet above the level of the sea, to the banks of the Euphrates itself.
Throughout the Authorized Version, the word is, with only a very few exceptions, rendered, as in the Vulgate and LXX, Syria. Its earliest occurrence in the book of Genesis is in the form of Aram-naharaim, that is, the "highland of or between the two rivers." Genesis 24:10. Authorized Version, "Mesopotamia".
In the later history, we meet with a number of small nations or kingdoms forming parts of the general land of Aram; but as Damascus increased in importance, it gradually absorbed the smaller powers, 1 Kings 20:1, and the name of Aram was at last applied to it alone. Isaiah 7:8, also 1 Kings 11:24-25; 1 Kings 15:18, etc.
2. Another Aram is named in Genesis 22:21 as a son of Kemuel and descendant of Nahor.
3. An Asherite, one of the sons of Shamer. 1 Chronicles 7:34.
4. Son of Esrom or Hezron, and the Greek form of the Hebrew, Ram. Matthew 1:3-4; Luke 3:33.
These files are public domain.
Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Aram'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/a/aram.html. 1901.
