Ramses II of 19th Century BCE and Thutmose III of 18th Century BCE, Contenders of Exodus History Building Pithom and Ramesses

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

A family group of 70  children of Israel (we know him as Jacob) went to Egypt since their land in Canaan had been hit by a terrible drought, and their crops could no longer grow.  They did so well there with their sheep that the pharaoh became most worried. 

  Joseph, Jacob's son by Rachel,  on throne-chair, 2nd in command, in charge of all the land of Egypt, with a main project of the granneries.  Joseph was given the pharaoh's ring he wore, dressed in fine linen, a gold chain around his neck, and rode in the pharaoh's 2nd best chariot.  When he rode by, people yelled, Avrech! He re-named Joseph as Zaphenath-paneah and he gave him a wife, Asenath, the daughter ofPoti-phera.  Joseph's days were before this pharaoh's knowledge of previous history. These days were part of the first days of a 400 year span of living in Egypt.   

 He didn't know Joseph, the son of Jacob who had become the 2nd to the pharaoh of the day, so this was another pharaoh.  This one figured that there were more of these new people than there were of Egyptians and was afraid that they'd join Egypt's enemies and make war on them.                             

They settled in Goshen in lower Egypt near the mouth of the Nile River.  The time of the Hebrews in Egypt including slavery was 400 years. This pharaoh only knew Hebrews as the lower-classed slaves.  Maybe several pharaoh's were involved during the 400 years.   

STORE-CITIES (עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנﯴת׃֙, “cities of storage”; i.e. “magazines”). Under the lashes of taskmasters the Israelites built Pithom and Raamses as “store-cities” for Pharaoh (Exod 1:11). Pithom has been identified as Tell et-Retabah and Raamses as ancient Tanis. 

Solomon built a number of “store-cities” in Hamath (1 Kings 9:19) and in places throughout his realm not recorded in the Bible (1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chron 8:4, 6). During Baasha’s reign Ben-hadad concentrated upon and took the “store-cities” of Naphtali along with other cities (2 Chron 16:4). Jehoshaphat, in a program of strengthening Judah, built both “store-cities” and fortresses (17:12). Hezekiah also promoted the construction of “storehouses” (miskenoṭ; i.e., storage facilities, 2 Chron 32:28).

The “store-city” apparently had its background in the practice of Egypt to provide storage for the excessive yield of a “fat” year as a reserve against the poor yield of a “lean” year, as was the case in Joseph’s time. The storage facilities or “store-cities” are perhaps illustrated in the long, rectangular, room-like structures found at Beth-shemesh, Lachish, and other places. Beginning with Solomon and throughout the reigns of the later kings, these cities were used for storing grains and oil to be sent later to the palace personnel in Jerusalem or Samaria (for Jerusalem, see 1 Kings 4:7, 22, 23) or to be collected as an important part of government revenue, as is known from the ostraca of Samaria and other sources.

            BUILDING PITHOM AND RAMSES

The tribe of Israel were taken as slaves at this point and enslaved there, and their task was to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses; work with mortar and bricks, every labor of the field, and with everything they were forced to do, were treated with unbearable harshness. 

Pithom,  located near Ismailia in Al-Ismāʿīliyyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate) and mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 1:11) as one of the treasure houses built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews prior to the Exodus. Although Pithom has been identified as Tall al-Maskhūṭah, excavations at the site have revealed that, aside from an unfortified outpost of the Hyksos period (see ancient Egypt: The Second Intermediate period), the earliest layers do not predate the 7th century BCE. The monuments of Ramses II that in the past have been used as a dating criterion for the site were apparently transported to Tall al-Maskhūṭah, perhaps by the kings of the 30th dynasty (380–343 BCE; see ancient Egypt: The 28th, 29th, and 30th dynasties), to adorn this later city. This lessens Ramses being THE pharaoh of our history.  This construction at the end of the 7th century may even had been carried out by Pharaoh Necho II, possibly as part of his uncompleted canal building project from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez.  However, This name comes from Hebrew פיתום‎ Pithom which was taken from the Late Egyptian name *Pi-ʔAtōm (from earlier *Par-ʔAtāma) "House of Atum".

Pi-Ramesses"House of Ramesses") was the new capital built by the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) at Qantir, near the old site of Avaris. The city had served as a summer palace under Seti I (c. 1290–1279 BC), and may have been founded by Ramesses I (c. 1292–1290 BC) while he served under Horemheb.

Midwives listening to pharaoh but secretly not complying 

Exodus 1:22.  

                Moses hidden in bullrushes in basket                                                                                       

Midwives Shifrah and Puah were called forth and told to kill all sons of these Hebrew women, but the midwives were non-compliant.  Moses's mother had hidden him in a basket and set it in the Nile River.  They were living in Goshen at the time.   

              princess finding Moses in basket, Mirium with her

Pharaoh's first command regarding infanticide was limited to the midwives (Exodus 1:16). Now Pharaoh expands his command to "all his people," or all the Egyptians. Every newborn Israeli son was to be thrown into the Nile River. He essentially decreed for the mass genocide of all infant Jewish males as told in  Exodus 1:22 . 

Moses or a Moses lived in the 13th century BCE.   Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE; Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth year. 1592-1391= a difference of about 201 years using Jerome. So,we have a difference of about 200 years in our calculations. 

Commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Egyptianpharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The 19th century BCE was the century that lasted from 1900 BCE to 1801 BCE. .Along with Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, which itself was the most powerful period of ancient Egypt.  The 18th century BCE would run from 1800 BCE to 1701 BCE

                                        

The pharaoh ordering the deaths of the male babies could 

have been Thutmose III who was the son of Thutmose II by a

 secondary wife, Iset (or Aset). This is my pick of the pharaoh

 because he had a son who had died.   Thutmose II was the 

son of Thutmose I and a minor wife, Mutnofret.  There were 

several pharaoh's involved in the Israelites' period in Egypt. 

The most important pharaoh is thought to have been Ramses II  (ca 1303–ca 1213 B.C.)  non-Jewish math .  In fact, he is the 1st that researchers thought was the pharaoh of the Exodus history.  This was 3,326 years ago!  

"Though scholars generally do not recognize the biblical portrayal of the Exodus as an actual historical event, various historical pharaohs have been proposed as the corresponding ruler at the time the story takes place, with Ramesses II as the most popular candidate for Pharaoh of the Exodus. He is cast in this role in the 1944 novella The Tables of the Law by Thomas Mann. Although not a major character, Ramesses appears in Joan Grant's So Moses Was Born, a first-person account from Nebunefer, the brother of Ramose, which paints a picture of the life of Ramose from the death of Seti, replete with the power play, intrigue, and assassination plots of the historical record, and depicting the relationships with Bintanath, Tuya, Nefertari, and Moses.

In film, Ramesses is played by Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille's classic The Ten Commandments (1956). Here Ramesses is portrayed as a vengeful tyrant as well as the main antagonist of the film, ever scornful of his father's preference for Moses over "the son of [his] body". The animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998) also features a depiction of Ramesses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes, for both the speaking and the singing), portrayed as Moses' adoptive brother, and ultimately as the film's villain with essentially the same motivations as in the earlier 1956 film. Joel Edgerton played Ramesses in the 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings. Sérgio Marone plays Ramesses in the 2015–2016 Brazilian telenovela series Os Dez Mandamentos (English: 'Moses and the Ten Commandments').

In the 2013 miniseries The Bible, he is portrayed by Stewart Scudamore."

Resource: Torah, Stone Edition,  Exodus 

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/important-resources-used-to-date-exodus.html

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/when-egypt-ruled-immigrants-came-from.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/ramses-ii

https://www.britannica.com/place/Pithom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithom#:~:text=This%20construction%20at%20the%20end,to%20the%20Gulf%20of%20Suez.

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Store-Cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(Genesis)#:~:text=Impressed%20with%20Joseph's%20interpretations%2C%20Pharaoh,(Gen%2041%3A41).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-Ramesses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II