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It has with probability been identified with Reimun, on the northern slope of the Jabbok, about 5 miles west of Jerash or Gerasa, one of the cities of Decapolis. Others identify it with Gerosh, about 25 miles north-east of es-Salt, with which also many have identified it. (See RAMATH-MIZPEH.)
•RANGES (1.) Leviticus 11:35. Probably a cooking furnace for two or more pots, as the Hebrew word here is in the dual number; or perhaps a fire-place fitted to receive a pair of ovens.
(2.) 2 Kings 11:8. A Hebrew word is here used different from the preceding, meaning “ranks of soldiers.” The Levites were appointed to guard the king’s person within the temple (2 Chronicles 23:7), while the soldiers were his guard in the court, and in going from the temple to the palace. The soldiers are here commanded to slay any one who should break through the “ranks” (as rendered in the R.V.) to come near the king. In 2 Kings 11:15 the expression, “Have her forth without the ranges,” is in the Revised Version, “Have her forth between the ranks;” i.e., Jehoiada orders that Athaliah should be kept surrounded by his own guards, and at the same time conveyed beyond the precincts of the temple.
•RANSOM the price or payment made for our redemption, as when it is said that the Son of man “gave his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28; comp. Acts 20:28; Romans 3:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; Galatians 3:13; 4:4, 5: Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19. In all these passages the same idea is expressed). This word is derived from the Fr. rancon; Lat. redemptio. The debt is represented not as cancelled but as fully paid. The slave or captive is not liberated by a mere gratuitous favour, but a ransom price has been