RUMAH
roo'-ma (rumah; Codex Vaticanus Rhouma; Codex Alexandrinus Rhuma): 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 (2Ki 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 (Jud 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 Rumeh, about 3 miles North of Seffuriyeh. Some, however, would identify Rumah with Dumah of Jos 15:52, where the substitution of "r" for "d" is supported by the Septuagint (Rheuma), possibly represented by the modern Domeh, about 13 miles Southeast of Beit Jibrin. 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.

W. Ewing

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