RAMEUMPTOM

RAMEUMPTOM

Lehite noun		Prayerstand, ca. 74 BC (Alma 31:21)

The first element of the name is perhaps related to Hebrew râm, “to be high, exalted,” the same root that appears in the biblical GN Ramah, “hill” (cf. Book of Mormon 
Ramah). The form could be a plural nomens regens with the second element of the name in construct and thus mean “the elevations of.” It is tempting to see Hebrew
ʿomed, “stand,” and in the derived sense “place,”109 with the 3c.p. possessive pronoun, ʿomdām as the second element in Rameumptom, even though the vowels and 
consonants only plausibly correspond, thus giving the meaning, “the heights/loftiness/elevations of their stand” (RFS). The insertion of a bilabial voiceless plosive 
between a preceding bilabial and a following consonant is not without precedent.110 The vowels of ʿomed, if ʿomed belongs to the qutl class of segholates, can be 
traced to an original [u] and Ø, thus matching the Book of Mormon vowels. The change of a voiced to an unvoiced dental is also plausible. Harder to explain is the 
change of a to o, if the last two characters represent the possessive pronoun. The corresponding Aramaic 3c.p. possessive pronoun does have the *o vowel. The name 
and the stand are suggestive of the Jewish usage of ʿamīdāh, “stand” (see E. Werner, The Sacred Bridge, pp. 11–13, 15–16, which relates directly to the form, function 
and meaning of Rameumptom, “holy stand.”) Interestingly, the term ʿomed, translated “standingplace” *is always preceded in the Bible by the preposition ʿal, hence 
“upon their standingplace,” which may imply a special spot, perhaps a platform for notables such as the one used at the festival of Sukkot (JAT).	

See also the Hebrew ʿamida prayer. (RFS).

It is also possible that the second element could be derived from Hebrew ʿam(mah), “people,” or Arabic ʾumt-, “people.” The former does not have a *feminine form that 
I am aware of, and therefore the t would have to be added to form an otherwise unattested form. The latter comes from the common Semitic root ʾmm, “mother,” with 
derived meanings in different forms. Thus Rameumptom may mean “the elevation of the people.”

If the word is from the Hebrew singular rāmāh, “hill, high place, height,” then, as Tvedtnes points out, its construct form would be remat. This is not to invalidate the 
etymology. Often there are two plurals to a noun, each with different meanings, e.g., *

SEE THE NT CITY Betharamphtha in F.F. Bruce, New Testament History (New York, etc.: Doubleday, 1971), 341.

Richard Anderson in a personal communication suggested that Rameumptom may derive from Hebrew rmh, “high, raised up” and Hebrew mptn, “door, doorway.” See also 
Reynolds, Story of the Book of Mormon, p. 293, or 318, for ramoth, “high, elevated” and *-mptom, “threshhold.”

Unlikely is Egyptian rʿ-m-pt, “the sun is in the sky” (HWN via Urrutia).

109 See Nehemiah 13:11 ʿomdām, “their standingplace.”

110The Hebrew šimšōn, KJV “Samson,” cannot be pronounced without adding a bilabial plosive between the m and the š, i.e., šimpšōn, which is why the Greek transliteration 
of the name is written with the plosive character *ψ, and why some English renderings of the name also contain the p.