Note 69 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
Recent investigation has identified Tel-el-Maschuta, a spot not far from the modern Ismailia, as the site of both the Pithom and the Succoth of the Old Testament; the former was the sacred, the latter the civil name of the city, which is thus shown to have been one of the store-cities built by the Israelites (Ex. i. ii), and also the first stage reached by them on their journey (Ex. xii. 37; xiii. 20). The word Ar, meaning storehouse, occurs in the inscription by which M. Naville first identified Pithom-Succoth.