Hebrew word · H6619
פִּתֹם
pitom
Pithom
Pithom comes from Egyptian Pr-ʾItm, 'House of Atum', the name of a temple-town of the creator sun-god. Raamses comes from the royal name Raʿ-ms-sw, 'Ra is the one who fathered him', and almost certainly means Pr-Rʿ-ms-sw, Pi-Ramesse, 'House of Ramesses'.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
§ Pithom = "the city of justice"
one of the store-cities which the Pharaoh made the Israelites build
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Pithom comes from Egyptian Pr-ʾItm, 'House of Atum', the name of a temple-town of the creator sun-god. Raamses comes from the royal name Raʿ-ms-sw, 'Ra is the one who fathered him', and almost certainly means Pr-Rʿ-ms-sw, Pi-Ramesse, 'House of Ramesses'.
- Against the English
Spellings vary: 'Raamses' (KJV, WEB, ESV, NASB) or 'Rameses' (BSB, NIV). The difference is only in spelling.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Pi-Ramesse was the Delta capital of Ramesses II (reigned c. 1279–1213 BC). It has been located at Qantir and Tell el-Dab'a (Bietak), on the site of the earlier Hyksos capital Avaris. It was given up around the 12th century BC when its branch of the Nile silted up, and its monuments were carried to Tanis. Pithom lay in the Wadi Tumilat at either Tell er-Retaba or Tell el-Maskhuta (see debates). Papyrus Anastasi VI mentions 'the pools of Per-Atum' in the region.
Where it appears
Exodus · 1
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Exodus 1:11 פִּתֹ֖ם Pithom
So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
Here: "Pithom": from Egyptian Per-Atum, 'House of Atum', named after the sun-creator god. It lay in the Wadi Tumilat, the valley running east from the Nile Delta toward Sinai.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.