Migdol

Biblical Text

Migdol appears in two groups of passages.

• The Exodus route: God commands Moses to have the children of Israel "turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea" (Exodus 14:2). Numbers 33:7, summarizing the wilderness journey, likewise records that Israel departed from Etham and "turned again unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baalzephon: and they pitched before Migdol." It was here that the army of Pharaoh overtook them, and the crossing of the Red Sea followed.
• The Prophets: Jeremiah 44:1 records the word that came concerning the Jews dwelling in the land of Egypt at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and Pathros. In Jeremiah 46:14, Migdol again appears, together with Noph and Tahpanhes, as an Egyptian city that would hear the news of the Babylonian invasion. In Ezekiel 29:10 and 30:6, the expression "from Migdol to Syene (the modern Aswan region), even to the border of Cush" (rendered in the KJV as "from the tower of Syene") denotes Egypt from its northern to its southern extremity, that is, the whole of Egypt.

Background

Migdol (מִגְדֹּל) is also a common Hebrew noun meaning "tower" or "fortress." The same word is used for the "tower" of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Ancient Egypt maintained fortresses guarding its eastern frontier, and this Semitic word is known to have entered the Egyptian language as a term for frontier fortresses. Accordingly, "Migdol" may have designated a border fortress or the settlement around it rather than the proper name of a single town.

Its exact location has not been established. Scholars generally place it somewhere in the frontier zone east of the Nile Delta, leading toward the Sinai Peninsula. Opinions also differ on whether the Migdol of Exodus and the Migdol of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the same place.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

In Exodus, Migdol marks a position in which Israel, hemmed in between the sea and a fortress, appeared to have no way of escape. Exodus 14:3 states that Pharaoh would say of the Israelites, "They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in." The text recounts that it was in precisely this place that God brought about deliverance.

In the Prophets, Migdol appears as a place inhabited by Jews who had fled to Egypt after the Babylonian conquest of Judah. Jeremiah 44 rebukes them for serving other gods in the land of Egypt.

The place-name Migdol does not occur in the New Testament. Many hold that "Magdala," the hometown of Mary Magdalene, derives from the same root (Aramaic migdal, "tower"), but Magdala was an entirely different place, located in Galilee.

Interpretation and Issues

• The Exodus route: How one locates Migdol, Pihahiroth, and Baalzephon shapes one's account of where Israel crossed the sea and of the route of the Exodus. Proposals include a northern route along the Mediterranean coast, the lake region near the Isthmus of Suez, and the northern end of the Red Sea, among others; no consensus has been reached. The text gives only the names of the encampment sites and does not identify their exact present-day locations.
• The meaning of "turn": The word "turn" in Exodus 14:2 is commonly interpreted, in keeping with the flow of the narrative, as a deliberate instruction from God intended to lure Pharaoh. The text does not, however, specify in which direction Israel actually turned.