The site of Pithom is distinctly visible from the railway, about twelve miles west of Ismailia, and presents the ruins of fortifications and ex tensive granaries built with crude brick, some portions of which probably date from before the Exodus, though the site was occupied down to Roman times as the chief town of Succoth and an important frontier post. (See PITHONI.) (3) A New Dynasty. It is interesting to notice that Rameses I, the grandfather or grand uncle of Rameses II, was the founder of a new dynasty, that Seti I and his son Rameses II were both constructors of important public works in Lower Egypt, that both carried on great for eign wars, draining the resources of Egypt, and that both were great temple builders, and devoted to the interests of the priesthood.
These facts illustrate the statement respecting a new king who 'knew nct Joseph,' (Exod. 1:8) and afford reasons for the hardness of the bondage to which the Israelites were subjected as a for eign people doomed to compulsory labor.
Taking it for granted, then, that the time of the Exodus was in the reign of Menephtah, the son and successor of Rameses, that the wady Tumilat was the land of Goshen, or a principal part of it, and that Rameses and Succoth were in this valley let us study the geographical condi tions of the question.
(4) Geographical Conditions. On the east side of the delta of the Nile, about fifty miles northeast of Cairo, a narrow valley of cultivated soil extends eastward about eighty miles. This valley. wady Tumilat, anciently the land of Goshen or Gesen, is only a few miles wide at its western end, and gradually narrows towards the east.
The recent surveys of the British Military Engi neers (Lt.-Col. Ardagh, Major Spaight, and Lieut. Burton, R. E.) also render it certain that this valley once carried a branch of the Nile, which discharged its waters into the Red Sea. This branch, or a canal representing it, must have existed in the days of Moses. At present this valley is watered by the Sweetwater Canal, run ning from the Nile to Suez; and though prob ably inferior to the land of Goshen, in its best days (see GosnEN) is still one of the most beauti ful districts in Egypt, at least in its western part.
The position of this valley accords wonderfully with the scriptural notices of it. It would be the only convenient entrance into Egypt for Jacob with his flocks and herds. It was separated to a great degree from the rest of Egypt, and was emi nently suited to be the residence of a pastor al and agricultural people, differing in their habits from the Egyptians, and accu-tomed in their modes of life to the habits of Palestine.
At the date of the Exodus, as we are informed by Psalms ixxviii:tz, the court of Pharaoh was held in Zoan or Tanis, about thirty miles to the north of the land of Goshen.
Goaded by oppression and stimulated by the exhortations and prophecies of Moses and Aarot., the Hebrew bondsmen had assumed an attitude of passive resistance, and had probably gathered in great numbers at Rameses and its vicinity, a most convenient rallying place, both for those in the land of Goshen and those scattered over other parts of Egypt. Moses and Aaron passed to and fro between Zoan and Rameses acting 23 ambassadors of their people (Exod. iv :29; v:t). The king's chariot force, assembled at or near Zoan, commanded the land of Goshen. The Hebrews, therefore, could not move without the king's consent. Knowing this, and knowing also that the beginning of actual civil war might be the signal for rebellion among other subject Asiatic people, the king thought best to temporize. In such cases of political deadlock, providence often cuts the knot. It was so in this instance.
(5) Beginning of the Exodus. The continued plagues inflicted upon Egypt at length pro duced such discontent among the people that the king was forced to let the Hebrews go. The mandate was no sooner given than it was acted upon, for if Pharaoh should change his mind, he still had them in his power for two days' march at least. The camp at Rameses was therefore broken up; and, gathering up their countrymen as they passed, and receiving from the Egyptians gifts and contributions in iieti of the property they had to leave behind, they hur ried on eastward, executing in nnc day ap parently a march of twelve nr fifteen miles. This is a long march for such a body of fugitives; but their haste was great and their tribal organiza tion was good. while their powers of walking may be supposed to have resembled those of the pres ent fellahs of Egypt.
They are said to have reached the district of Succorit (which see), and to have encamped within its limas• probably to the west of Puhom There is no more likely place for encamp ment than the neighborhood of Kassassin, where there is abundance of forage and water, and a defensible position, reasons which weighed in out own time with Sir Garnet \Volseley in selecting this as a halting point in his march on Tel-el Kebir.