Pithom

Biblical Text

Pithom appears in Exodus 1:11. When a new king who did not know Joseph arose and grew alarmed at the increasing number of the children of Israel, the Egyptians set taskmasters over the Israelites to afflict them with heavy burdens. During this time the children of Israel built for Pharaoh the treasure cities (store cities where grain and other supplies were kept) of Pithom and Raamses. The name Pithom occurs in the Bible only in this one verse.

Background

The name is widely understood to be a Hebrew rendering of the Egyptian Per-Atum ("house of Atum"). Atum was a god worshiped in ancient Egypt.

Many scholars locate the city in the eastern Nile Delta, in the valley known today as the Wadi Tumilat. Scholars differ, however, over which archaeological site is Pithom. In the late nineteenth century the Swiss Egyptologist Édouard Naville excavated Tell el-Maskhuta and identified it as Pithom, but many later scholars have instead identified the nearby site of Tell er-Retaba as Pithom. Some also connect this region with Succoth in Exodus 12:37.

The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, lists three cities in Exodus 1:11, adding "On, which is Heliopolis" to Pithom and Raamses.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Pithom is a concrete location that illustrates Israel's bondage in Egypt, and it serves as the starting point for the Exodus narrative that follows. The confession that God delivered His people from this hard labor recurs throughout the Old Testament. The New Testament does not mention Pithom by name, but in Acts 7:17–19 Stephen recounts Israel's history, recalling how the king of Egypt mistreated their ancestors. Christian tradition has read the deliverance from Egyptian bondage as a foreshadowing of salvation from bondage to sin.

Interpretation and Debate

Pithom, together with Raamses, is frequently cited in the debate over the date of the Exodus. Those who connect the name Raamses with Ramesses II of the thirteenth century BC date the Exodus to that period. Those who date the Exodus to the fifteenth century BC on the basis of the "four hundred and eightieth year" in 1 Kings 6:1 explain that the place name may have been recorded using a later, more familiar name. The question of Pithom's location is likewise bound up with this debate and remains unresolved.

The text does not describe in detail what Pithom looked like or what materials the children of Israel used to build it. Because Exodus 1:14 and chapter 5 mention working clay and making bricks, Pithom is commonly described as having been built of brick, but this is an interpretation drawn from reading these passages together. Claims that link bricks from the site Naville excavated directly to the labor of the Israelites also circulate, but these have not been established by scholarship.