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Bible references
In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping [for] her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:18 KJV)
A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:18 ASV)
A voice has been heard in Rama, weeping, and great lamentation: Rachel weeping [for] her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:18 DBY)
“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:18 WEB)
‘A voice in Ramah was heard–lamentation and weeping and much mourning–Rachel weeping [for] her children, and she would not be comforted because they are not.'(Matthew 2:18 YLT)
Interlinear KJV
Mt 2:18 In /en/ Rama /Rhama/ was there /akouo/ a voice /phone/ heard, /akouo/ lamentation, /threnos/ and /kai/ weeping, /klauthmos/ and /kai/ great /polus/ mourning, /odurmos/ Rachel /Rhachel/ weeping /klaio/ for her /autos/ children, /teknon/ and /kai/ would /thelo/ not /ou/ be comforted, /parakaleo/ because /hoti/ they are /eisi/ not. /ou/
The Fourfold Gospel
In Ramah. This word means “highland” or “hill.” The town lies six miles north of Jerusalem. It was the birthplace and burial-place of the prophet Samuel. It is also supposed to be the Arimathea of the New Testament. See Mt 27:57.
Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children. Why these tearful mothers in Bethlehem? Because that which Christ escaped remained for his brethren, their children, to suffer. If he would escape death, all his brethren must die. But he died that all his brethren might live.
And she would not be comforted, because they are not. The words here quoted were originally written concerning the Babylonian captivity (Jer 31:15). Ramah was a town of Benjamin (Jos 18:25). Jeremiah was carried thither in chains with the other captives, but was there released by the order of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 40:1; 39:11,12). Here he saw the captives depart for Babylon, and heard the weeping of the poor who were left in the land (Jer 39:10); hence the mention of Ramah as the place of lamentation. He represents Rachel weeping, because the Benjamites were descendants of Rachel, and, perhaps, because the tomb of Rachel was “in the border of Benjamin,” and not far away (1Sa 10:2). The image of the ancient mother of the tribe, rising from her tomb to weep, and refusing to be comforted because her children were not around her, is inimitably beautiful; and this image so strikingly portrayed the weeping in Bethlehem that Matthew adopts the words of the prophet, and says that they were here fulfilled. It was the fulfillment, not of a prediction, properly speaking, but of certain words spoken by the prophet.
(TFG 52)
British Family Bible
In Rama – Rachel weeping for her children, these words at Jer 31:15, were, in a primary sense, spoken figuratively of the captivity in Babylon, and the slaughter at Jerusalem, which city was in the tribe of Benjamin, the son of Rachel: and as these events occurred long after the death of Rachel, it is not meant that she really wept; but the expression is used to set forth the lamentable nature of the slaughter, and so it receives a secondary completion in this slaughter of the infants at Bethlehem. The Bethlehemites might well be called the children of Rachel, being descended from her husband and her own sister, and she being buried among them, Ge 35:19; and, as Rama was in the tribe of Benjamin which sprang from Rachel, and not far from Bethlehem, the voice of her weeping might well be said to be heard in Rama. Drs. Hammond and Whitby.
The lamentation at Rama was made, at first, only for the captivity of an impious people, but was now most grievously repeated for the actual death of harmless children. Dr. H. Owen.