Goshen - Encyclopedia of The Bible (2024)

GOSHEN gō’ shən (גֹּ֔שֶׁן; LXX Γεσεμ, (Gen), Γοσομ, (Josh); meaning uncertain).

1. Goshen in Egypt. Geographically, Goshen is closely linked with the land and city of Raamses. In Genesis 47:6, 11, the pharaoh assigned Goshen to Joseph’s family, the later narrator describing it as “the land of Rameses.” Goshen and the land of Rameses are thus largely identical. At the time of the Exodus, the Hebrews were still in Goshen (Exod 8:22; 9:26), but began their exodus from Rameses (Exod 12:37; Num 33:3), which city they had helped to build (Exod 1:11). As the Hebrews also had to work at Pithom (Exod 1:11), Goshen should preferably be within reasonable reach of Pithom. Furthermore, Goshen lay on a route from Pal. into Egypt, and was en route for the residence of Joseph’s pharaoh (cf. data in Gen 45:10; 46:28, 29; 47:1-6). As Joseph (on any reasonable date for the patriarchs) belongs in the Middle Kingdom or Hyksos periods, his ruler’s residence must be one of that general epoch not too far removed from the later Raamses of the 19th dynasty. Finally, Goshen was a good place for keeping cattle (Gen 46:34; 47:6) and had room for settlers.

Raamses has been located at either Tanis (Zoan) or near modern Qantir (more likely; see [http://biblegateway/wiki/Raamses, Rameses (city) RAAMSES]). As Pithom is indubitably to be located in Wadi Tumilat in the SE Delta (see Pithom), Goshen can readily be placed in the territory between Saft el Henneh in the S (at W end of Wadi Tumilat) and Qantir and El Salhieh in the N and NE. It could hardly be still further extended up to Tanis.

This suggested extent would allow Joseph to meet his family in the northern part of Goshen, if they came in by the El-’Arish route via Qantara toward Qantir; they would perhaps meet Joseph near El Salhieh. A series of discoveries by Egyp. scholars in the E Delta makes it highly probable that a royal residence existed in the 10th and 12th-13th and Hyksos dynasties (including the “Hyksos” town of Avaris) in the same region favored centuries later by Ramses II for his Delta residence of Raamses. Attested by temples and a palace, this residence was the administrative center for the E Delta and Palestinian affairs.

The LXX tradition calls Goshen “Gesem of Arabia,” this “Arabia” being an epithet of the 20th Lower Egyp. nome (province), prob. extending from Faqus to Saft el Henneh. It is not quite certain whether the Egypt. inscrs. actually offer an equivalent for Heb. Goshen. One toponym in Egyp. is so written that it could be read either S̆smt or Gsmt. Brugsch and Naville accepted the reading Gsmt and equated this with Goshen/Gesem. Gardiner preferred to maintain the sole reading S̆smt, keeping it identical with a known place name. Both Montet and van Seters have revived the reading Gsmt and its identification with Goshen. A final verdict is not yet possible, but either way, the topography is not affected.

The role of Goshen as a cattle-raising area fits well into the conditions of the Egyp. Delta, with its bull cults (Otto, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stierkulte in Aegypten [1938], 6-9, 32, 33) and prominent animal-husbandry (Kees, Ägypten [1933], 10). In the late Hyksos period, the Theban princes even sent their cattle to pasture in the Hyksos-controlled Delta (JEA, III [1916], 103). Under Ramses III, Papyrus Harris I has cattle of the god Amun pastured by the Waters of Ra in the very region of Biblical Goshen, alongside other districts (Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onamastica, II [1947], 167*).

2. In Palestine. Joshua 10:40, 41 records Joshua’s campaigns over the hill country, southland (Negeb), lowlands (Shephelah) and slopes (Ashedoth) of W Pal., specifying the area from Kadesh-Barnea to Gaza and “all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon”; Joshua 11:16 also mentions Goshen as an area. This “land of Goshen” is perhaps named after the town of Goshen in the hill country assigned to Judah (Josh 15:51), either at Tell el Dhahiriyeh (so, Abel) 12 m. SW of Hebron, or somewhat further E (so GTT, sections 285-287, 497).

Bibliography On Egyp. Goshen, cf. E. Naville, Goshen and the Shrine of Saft el Henneh (1885); A. H. Gardiner, JEA, V (1918), 218-223; Naville and Gardiner, JEA, X (1924), 28-32 and 94, 95; J. van Seters, The Hyksos (1966), 146, 148 and references.