ARAM

1. The name of three men in the Bible: a son of Shem, Ge 10:22, a grandson of Nahor, Ge 22:21, and an ancestor of our Lord, Ru 4:19 1Ch 2:10 Mt 1:3 Lu 3:33 2. Nearly synonymous with Syria; the Hebrew name of the whole region northeast of Palestine, extending from the Tigris on the east nearly to the Mediterranean on the west, and to the Taurus range on the north. It was named after Aram the son of Shem. Thus defined, it includes also Mesopotamia, which the Hebrews named Aram-naharaim, Aram of the two rivers, Ge 25:20 48:7. Various cities in the western part of Aram gave their own names to the regions around them: as Damascus, (Aram-Dammesek,) 2Sa 8:6; Maachah, near Bashan, 1Ch 19:6; Geshur, Jos 12:5 2Sa 15:8; Zobah, and Beth-rehob, 2Sa 10:6,8. Several of these were powerful states, and often waged war against Israel. David subdued them and made them tributaries, and Solomon preserved this supremacy. After him it was lost, except perhaps under Jeroboam II. See SYRIA, PADAN-ARAM. The Aramaean language, nearly resembling the Hebrew, gradually supplanted the latter as a spoken language, and was in use in Judea at the time of Christ. It is still used by Syrian Christians around Mosul.

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Aram. Aram
The son of Shem (Gen. 10:22); according to Gen. 22:21, a grandson of Nahor. In Matt. 1:3, 4, and Luke 3:33, this word is the Greek form of Ram, the father of Amminadab (1 Chr. 2:10).

The word means high, or highlands, and as the name of a country denotes that elevated region extending from the northeast of Palestine to the Euphrates. It corresponded generally with the Syria and Mesopotamia of the Greeks and Romans. In Gen. 25:20; 31:20, 24; Deut. 26:5, the word “Syrian” is properly “Aramean” (R.V., marg.). Damascus became at length the capital of the several smaller kingdoms comprehended under the designation “Aram” or “Syria.”

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Aram. highness, magnificence, one that deceives; curse

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ARAM. → (The name of various regions, and of several men. The word signifies highlands, and is applied in its compounds to various highland districts of Syria) 1. The region whence Balaam came at Balak's command Nu 23:7 2. A region north of Canaan 1Ch 2:23 3. Son of Shem Ge 10:22,23; 1Ch 1:17 4. Son of Kemuel Ge 22:21 5. Son of Shamer 1Ch 7:34

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(high). 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 , i.e. 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 1Kin 11:24,25; 15:18 etc. Another Aram is named in (Genesis 22:21) as a son of Kemuel and descendant of Nahor. An Asherite, one of the sons of Shamer. (1 Chronicles 7:34) Son of Esrom or Hezron, and the Greek form of the Hebrew RAM. (Matthew 1:3,4; Luke 3:33)