Rameses, Raamses

RAMESES, RAAMSES (râ-ăm’sēz). A Hebrew place-name derived from the Egyptian royal name Ramses. In the OT it appears first as the name of the district of the Delta in which Jacob and his sons were settled by Joseph (Gen.47.11). (The lxx also reads Ramessē for the second “Goshen” of the Hebrew and English text of Gen.46.28.) Rameses and Pithom are the names given in Exod.1.11 for the two store cities the Israelites were forced to build for the Pharaoh of the Oppression. From Rameses the Israelites began their exodus from Egypt (Exod.12.37; Num.33.3, Num.33.5). At present there is fairly general agreement that Rameses is to be identified with Avaris-Tanis-Zoan, the modern San el Hagar in the NE part of the Delta, an identification that has considerable bearing on the interpretation of the Exodus.——CEDV