Bible Encyclopedias
Rumah

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

rōō´ma ( רוּמה , rūmāh ; Codex Vaticanus Ῥουμά , Rhoumá ; Codex Alexandrinus Ῥυμά , Rhumá ): To this place belonged Pedaiah whose daughter Zebudah (the Revised Version (British and American) "Zebidah") entered the harem of Josiah, king of Judah, and became the mother of Jehoiakim ( 2 Kings 23:36 ). Josephus (Ant. , X, v, 2) calls the place Abouma, but this is an obvious clerical error for Arouma. This suggests a possible identification with Arumah (Judges 9:41 ), which lay not far from Shechem. Another possible identification is with the Rumah mentioned by Josephus (BJ , III, vii, 21) in Galilee (compare Neubauer, Geog. du Talmud , 203), which may be identical with the modern Khirbet Rūmeh , about 3 miles North of Ṣeffūriyeh . Some, however, would identify Rumah with Dumah of Joshua 15:52 , where the substitution of "r" for "d" is supported by the Septuagint (Rheuma ), possibly represented by the modern Dōmeh , about 13 miles Southeast of Beit Jibrı̄n . This of course was in the territory of Judah, and no question of jus connubium is involved, such as might arise in the case of a Galilean site.