1 Samuel 2:11

2:11 Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah. But the boy was serving the Lord under the supervision of ¹  Eli the priest.

1 Samuel 4:10

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ²  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

1 Samuel 7:17

7:17 Then he would return to Ramah, because his home was there. He also judged ³  Israel there and built an altar to the Lord there.

1 Samuel 25:1

The Death of Samuel

25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 28:24

28:24 Now the woman ⁵  had a well-fed calf ⁶  at her home that she quickly slaughtered. Taking some flour, she kneaded bread and baked it without leaven.

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¹ tn Heb “with [or “before”] the face of.”

² tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”

³ tn Or perhaps “settled disputes for” (cf. NLT “would hear cases there”; NRSV “administered justice there”).

⁴ tc The LXX reads “Maon” here instead of “Paran,” perhaps because the following account of Nabal is said to be in Maon (v. 2). This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT). The MT, however, reads “Paran,” a location which would parallel this portion of David’s life with that of the nation Israel which also spent time in Paran (Num 10:12). Also, the desert of Paran was on the southern border of Judah’s territory and would be the most isolated location for hiding from Saul.

⁵ sn Masoretic mss of the Hebrew Bible mark this word as the half-way point in the book of Samuel, treating 1 and 2 Samuel as a single book. Similar notations are found at the midway point for all of the books of the Hebrew Bible.

⁶ tn Heb “a calf of the stall.”