Rameses

In Bible versions:

Rameses: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV
Raamses: AVS NASB TEV

a town of the east Nile delta which the Hebrews helped build
a town in the east Nile delta, from where the Exodus began (IBD)
a district in the east Nile delta, allotted to the Israelites

---

NET Glossary: a city of Egypt mentioned along with Pithom, where the Israelites were oppressed with hard labor while slaves in Egypt (Exod 1:11; 12:37; Num 33:3); it was located in the eastern Nile Delta and was the place from which the Israelites departed at the exodus

Google Maps: Raamses (30° 35´, 32° 11´); Rameses (30° 47´, 31° 50´)

Arts:

Arts Topics: Portraits of Rameses II

Hebrew

Strongs #07486: oomer Ra`m@cec or oomer Ra`amcec

Raamses or Rameses = "child of the sun"

1) a city in lower Egypt built by Hebrew slaves; probably in Goshen

7486 Ra`mcec rah-mes-ace'

or Raamcec {rah-am-sace'}; of Egyptian origin; Rameses or
Raamses, a place in Egypt:-Raamses, Rameses.

Raamses [EBD]

(Ex. 1:11). (See RAMESES.)

Rameses [EBD]

"the land of" (Gen. 47:11), was probably "the land of Goshen" (q.v.) 45:10. After the Hebrews had built Rameses, one of the "treasure cities," it came to be known as the "land" in which that city was built.

The city bearing this name (Ex. 12:37) was probably identical with Zoan, which Rameses II. ("son of the sun") rebuilt. It became his special residence, and ranked next in importance and magnificance to Thebes. Huge masses of bricks, made of Nile mud, sun-dried, some of them mixed with stubble, possibly moulded by Jewish hands, still mark the site of Rameses. This was the general rendezvous of the Israelites before they began their march out of Egypt. Called also Raamses (Ex. 1:11).

Raamses [NAVE]

RAAMSES
See: Rameses.

Rameses [NAVE]

RAMESES, called also Raamses. The district in Egypt inhabited by the Israelites, Gen. 47:11; Ex. 1:11; 12:37; Num. 33:3, 5.
City of, built by the Israelites as a treasure city for Pharaoh, Ex. 1:11.

RAAMSES [SMITH]

(Exodus 1:11) [RAMESES, OR RAAMSES]

RAMESES, OR RAAMSES [SMITH]

(child of the sun), a city and district of lower Egypt. (Genesis 47:11; Exodus 12:37; Numbers 33:3,5) This land of Rameses either corresponds to the land of Goshen or was a district of it, more probably the former. The city was one of the two store-cities built for the Pharaoh who first oppressed the children of Israel. (Exodus 1:11) (It was probably the capital of Goshen and situated in the valley of the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. McClintock and Strong say that its location is indicated by the present Tell Ramsis , a quadrangular mound near Belbeis. Dr. Brugsch thinks that it was at Zoan-Tanis, the modern San, on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and that it was built or enlarged by Rameses II and made his capital. --ED.)

RAAMSES; RAMESES [ISBE]

RAAMSES; RAMESES - ra-am'-sez, ram'-e-sez (Ex 1:11), (Gen 47:11; Ex 12:37; Nu 33:3,5) (ra`mecec, ra`amcec; Rhamesse; Egyptian Ra-messu, "Ra created him" (or "it")):

1. The Meaning of "Store-Cities":

One of the two "settlements" (mickenoth) 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 (Ex 1:11). The Hebrew term mickenoth 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 (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).

C. R. Conder

RAMESES [ISBE]

RAMESES - ram'-e-sez, ra-me'-sez.

See RAAMSES.