A place in the wilderness where the Israelites encamped when they turned back from Etham. It lay between Migdol and the sea "before Baal-zephon" (Exodus 14:2,9; Numbers 33:7,8). The etymology of the name, which is apparently Egyptian, was the subject of much speculation by the ancient commentators. The Septuagint, while treating the word as a proper name in Numbers (Îá¼°ÏÏÏ; translating, however,
The theory of an Egyptian etymology was advanced by Jablonsky, who compared it to the Coptic "pi-akhirot" = "the place where sedge grows," and by Naville, who explained the name as "the house of the goddess Ḳerhet." On the basis of this latter explanation, Fulgence Fresnel identified Pihahiroth with the modern Ghuwaibat al-Bus (="the bed of reeds"), near Ras Atakah.
- Selbie, in Hastings, Dict. Bible.
The contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906. The Jewish Encyclopedia, which recently became part of the public domain, contains over 15,000 articles and illustrations.
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