The tirst mention of Rameses is in the narrative of the settling by Joseph of his father and brethren in Egypt, where it is related that a possession was given them "in the land of Rameses" (Gen. xlvii, 11). This land of Ilamcses (Cp~2"^ "^X) either corresponds to the land of Goshen, or was a district of it, more proba- bly the former, as appears from a comparison of a par- allel passage (ver. 6). The name next occurs as that of one of the two cities built for the Pharaoh who first oppressed the children of Israel. ''And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities (iYl33t)E ^3), Pithom and Raamses" (Exod. i, 11). So in the A.V. The Sept., however, reads ttoXhc. bxvpc'ic, anil the Vulg. urbes ta- bernaculorum, as if the root had been "~^. The sig- nification of the word KlSSO1? is decided by its use for storehouses of corn, wine, and oil, which Ilezekiah had (2 Chron. xxxii, 28). We should therefore here read store-cities, which may have been the meaning of our translators. The name of Pithom indicates the region near Heliopolis, ami therefore the neighborhood of Go- shen, or that tract itself; and there can therefore be no doubt that Raamses is "Rameses in the land of Goshen." In the narrative of the Exode we read of Rameses as the starting-point of the journey (Exod. xii, 37; see also Numb, xxxiii, 3, 5). See Goshen.
If, then, we suppose Rameses or Raamses to have been the chief town of the land of Rameses, either Go- shen itself or a district of it, we have to endeavor to determine its situation. Lepsius supposes that Abu- Kesheid is on the site of Rameses. His reasons are that in the Sept. Heroiipolis is placed in the land of Rameses (kc&' Hpiuioi' ttoXw, iv ytj P«/itcir;7, or tic, yrjv 'Pa- j[t£(7cr;)), in a passage where the Hebrew only mentions " the land of Goshen" (Gen. xlvi, 28), and that there is a monolithic group at Abu-Kesheid representing Turn and Ra, and between them Rameses II, who was proba- bly there worshipped. There would seem, therefore, to be an indication of the situation of the district and city from this mention of Ileroopolis, and the statue of Ram- eses might mark a place named after that king. It must, however, be remembered (a) that the situation of Ileroopolis is a matter of "great doubt, and that there-
RAMESES
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fore we can scarcely take any proposed situation aa an indication of that of Rami ses; (&) thai the land of Barn- eses may be thai of Goshen, as already remarked, in which case the passage would nol afford any more pre- cise indication of the position of the » ii > I Jameses than thai it was in Goshen, as is evident from the account of the Exodus; and (c) that the mention of Heroopolis in the Sept. would seem to be a gloss. It is also neces- sary to consider the evidence in the Biblical narrative of the position of Barneses, which seems to point to in pari of the land of Goshen, since two full marches, and i>art at least of a third, brought the [sra- elites from this town to the Bed Sea; and the narra- tive appears to indicate a mute for the chief can di- rectly towards the sea. Alter the second day's journey they "encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilder-
i Exod. xiii, 20), and on the third day they appear
to have turned. IT. however. Barneses was where Lep- sius place- it. the route would have been almosl u hollj through the wilderness, and mainly alone; the tract bor- dering the lied Sett in a southerly direction, so thai they would have turned almost at once. Even could it lie proved that it was anciently called Rameses, the case would not be made out, for there is good rt ason to suppose that many cities in Egypl bore this name. Apart from the .ancient evidence, we may mention that there is now a place called " Bemsees" or " Bamsees" in the Boheireh (the great province on the west of the Bosetta branch of the Nile), mentioned in the list of towns and villages of Egypt in De Sacy's Abd-allatif, p. 664. It gave to its district the name of " H6f-Rem- sees' or "Ramsees." This "Hdf" must not be con- founded with the " Hof " commonly known, which was in the district of Belbeis. — Smith. Of the old transla- tor-, only Saadias and Pseudo-Jonathan point out a place tor Barneses; the rest all preserve the name from the Hebrew (comp. Arab, of Erpen, On Exod. i. 1 1 i. Saadias <dves Heliopolis ; Jonathan, Pelusium. The latter is certainly wrong; the former is supported by Jablonski QOpusc. ii. 136), on the ground of a Coptic etymology. lint Heliopolis. which Teschendorf also (Reis. i. 175, and Dissert, de Tsr. j><r Man Rub. Trans. p. l."> Bq.) makes to be Raamses, is elsewhere always called i in op v.). and is expressly distinguished from Barneses by the Sept. (Exod. i, 11; here the! od. Medi- olan. reads indeed final "Qi/,bul this amounts to nothing againsl the lb-brew text). Others ias Bengstenberg, Moses, p. 18 sip: Ewald, Tsr. Gesch. ii, 52 sq.; Forbiger, Handb. ii. 784) understand Heroopolis (comp. Sept. al Gen. xlvi. 28; where, however, the region of Raamses is spoken of. as above, and it is only asserted that He- roopolis lay in this district). To the same purpose is the view of Clericus, Lakemacher {Observ. PkiloL \i. 321 sq.), and .Mnller (Sal,,,-. Observ. Philol. p. 189) thai Barneses is Avaris (Gr. ivapig,' V "'""";>• in the Saitic (or. according to Bernard's plausible emendation, the Sethrotic) district (Ptolemy, iv, 5, 53), a place fortified by Salaiis, the king of the Hyksos (Josephus, Apion, i. II, '-'i'.; comp. Michaelis, Suppl. p. 2261 ». For Avaris (according to Manetho, in Josephus, Apion, i. 26 I is the city ofTyphon, and this is probably Heroopolis itself