Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel [Rachel] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border. –– Jeremiah 31:15-17

The context of Jeremiah 31 is one of joy, not of weeping. The emphasis is not on the weeping for lost children but on joy for their return “from the land of the enemy.” Though this prophecy had a localized fulfillment, it also had an application at the first advent of Jesus (Matthew 2:18). It seems just as certain that it has a still larger fulfillment when all the children of all the mothers of the world will come back from the great “land of the enemy” — death itself.

In light of these multiple fulfillments, the question remains, Why Rachel? And why Ramah? There have been millions of mothers from hundreds of thousands of cities throughout the world who have undergone such losses. Why were these two selected?

Why Rachel?

Of all the mothers in Israel, no one could claim the title of “mother of all Israel” better than Rachel.

Though she bore only two of the twelve sons of Jacob, those two well represent the whole of the nation. Benjamin was the junior member of the two-tribe kingdom. Joseph was not only in the northern kingdom, but the name of his son, Ephraim, became synonymous with the whole kingdom of Israel. Thus, her two children represent the whole of Israel in the type and all the people of the world in the larger antitype.

Why Ramah?

The literal city of Ramah does not appear elsewhere in the immediate context of the Jeremiah scripture. If it did, it would become necessary to determine which Ramah is meant. Nelson’s Bible Dictionary refers to no less than six cities by this name — one each in Benjamin, Ephraim, Naphtali, and Asher, as well a city in the Negev inhabited by Simeon, and one in Gilead of the tribe of Manasseh.

Three of these Ramahs have historical details given in scripture. The one in Gilead is better known as Ramoth-Gilead of Gad and is usually referred to as Ramoth-Gilead. Therefore, it does not seem that this Ramah is prominent in this prophecy.

This leaves two Ramahs — the ones in Ephraim and Benjamin. These are the same two tribes that are descendants of Rachel. Ramah of Ephraim was the more prominent of the two, particularly during the period of the kings. It was revered as the home of the last judge of Israel, Samuel. The emphasis in our theme text, however, appears to be more particularly on the Ramah of Benjamin. It is this Ramah that is mentioned when Israel faced the scourge of Assyria (Isaiah 10:29) and relates to God’s judgments on both Ephraim and Benjamin (Hosea 5:3, 8). Thus, the selection of these two names—Rachel and Ramah—appears well chosen by Jeremiah to show the universality of both the death sentence and the removal of that sentence. All the children so bereaved by their forlorn mothers will return from “the land of the enemy” and “come again to their border.”

–– Beauties of the Truth 1997/1