Raamses; Rameses

[Raam’ses] [Ram’eses]

District in Goshen in Lower Egypt, east of the Nile, in which Jacob and his descendants were placed, and in which they built a treasure city of the same name for Pharaoh. It was from thence the Israelites began their march out of Egypt. Gen 47:11; Exo 1:11; Exo 12:37; Num 33:3; Num 33:5. It is not identified. It is a disputed point as to whether the name of the district or of the city had any connection with the Egyptian kings named Rameses.

RAAMSES, RAMESES.—One of the treasure cities built by the Israelites in Egypt, and the starting-point of the Exodus (Exo 1:11; Exo 12:37, Num 33:3; Num 33:5). The site is not quite certain, but it was probably one of the cities called in Egyp. P-Ra’messe, House of Ramesse,’ after Ramesses ii. In Gen 47:11 Joseph, by Pharaoh’s command, gives to Jacob’s family ‘a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses.’ It thus lay in the Land of Goshen (wh. see), and is to be looked for in the first place in the Wady Tumilat. Petrle identifies it with Tell Rotab, where he has found sculptures of the age of Ramesses ii.

F. Ll. Griffith.

rā́-am´sēz, ram´ḗ-sēz (Exo 1:11), (Gen 47:11; Exo 12:37; Num 33:3, Num 33:5) (רעמסס, ra‛m^eṣēṣ, רעמסס, ra‛amṣēṣ; Ρ̓αμεσσῆ, Rhamessḗ; Egyptian Ra-messu, “Ra created him” (or “it”)):

1. The Meaning of “Store-Cities”:

One of the two “settlements” (miṣk^enōth) built, or “built up,” by the Hebrews for the Pharaoh, the other being Pithom, to which the Septuagint adds a third, namely, “On which is Heliopolis,” a town near Cairo (Exo 1:11). The Hebrew term miṣk^enōth comes from a root meaning “to settle down” (Arabic sakan, “settlement,” Assyrian sakanu or shakanu, “to set”), but it is rendered “strong cities” in Septuagint, “treasure cities” in the King James Version, and (incorrectly) “store-cities” in the Revised Version: The “land of Rameses,” where Jacob and his sons settled, was apparently the “field of Zoan” (see ZOAN), thus lying in the Delta East of the Bubastic branch of the Nile.

2. The Meaning of the Name:

It is often assumed that no city called Rameses would have existed before the time of Rameses II, or the 14th century BC, though even before Rameses I the name occurs as that of a brother of Horemhib under the XVIIIth Dynasty. The usual translation “Child of Ra” is grammatically incorrect in Egyptian and as Ra was an ancient name for the “sun” it seems possible that a town may have borne the title “Ra created it” very early. The mention of Rameses in Gen (Gen 47:11) is often regarded as an anachronism, since no scholar has supposed that Jacob lived as late as the time of Rameses II. This would equally apply to the other notices, and at most would serve to mark the age of the passages in the Pentateuch where Rameses is mentioned, but even this cannot be thought to be proved (see EXODUS). According to De Rouge (see Pierret, Vocab. Hieroglyph., 1875, 143) there were at least three towns in Lower Egypt that bore the name Pa Rames-ses (“city of Rameses”); but Brugsch supposes that the place mentioned in the Old Testament was Zoan, to which Rameses II gave this name when making it his capital in the Delta. Dr. Budge takes the same view, while Dr. Naville and others suppose that the site of Raamses has still to be found.

3. Situation:

There appears to have been no certain tradition preserving the site, for though Silvia (about 385 AD) was told that it lay 4 miles from the town of Arabia (see GOSHEN), she found no traces of such a place. Brugsch (“A New City of Rameses, 1876,” Aegyptische Zeitschrift, 69) places one such city in the southern part of Memphis itself. Goodwin (Rec. of Past, Old Series, VI, 11) gives an Egyptian letter describing the “city of Rameses-Miamun,” which appears to be Zoan, since it was on the seacoast. It was a very prosperous city when this letter was written, and a pa-khennu or “palace city.” It had canals full of fish, lakes swarming with birds, fields of lentils, melons, wheat, onions and sesame, gardens of vines, almonds and figs. Ships entered its harbor; the lotus and papyrus grew in its waters. The inhabitants greeted Rameses II with garlands of flowers. Besides wine and mead, of the “conqueror’s city,” beer was brought to the harbor from the Kati (in Cilicia), and oil from the “Lake Sagabi.” There is no reason to suppose that Zoan was less prosperous in the early Hyksos age, when the Hebrews dwelt in its plain, whatever be the conclusion as to the date when the city Rameses received that name. The description above given agrees with the Old Testament account of the possession given by Joseph to his family “in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses” (Gen 47:11).