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47:10
47:11

47:11

Seventh Reading
Joseph found a place for his father and brothers to live. He gave them an estate in the Rameses region, in the best area, as Pharaoh had ordered.
Vayoshev Yosef et-aviv ve'et-echav vayiten lahem achuzah be'erets Mitsrayim bemeytav ha'arets be'erets Ramses ka'asher tsivah Far'oh.

Commentary:

Rameses region
This was in Goshen (Rashi; Ibn Ezra on Genesis 46:1). Some sources identify it with Pelusium, a city at the extreme northeast of the Nile delta (Targum Yonathan; see note on Exodus 1:11). Others identify it with Hero-opolis (cf. Genesis 45:10; Septuagint on Genesis 46:28), which may be Avaris, the ancient Hyksos capital (Josephus, Contra Apion 1:14), identified with Typho's City (Ibid. 1:26). Josephus himself, however, clearly identifies Rameses with Heliopolis (Antiquities 2:7:6), and this opinion is shared by Saadia Gaon (on Exodus 1:11).

Etymologically, Rameses comes from the Egyptian Ra-meses 'born of Ra,' where meses (born of) is also the root of the name Moses (Moshe) (see Exodus 2:10). Hence, it would be logical that the area around Heliopolis (or On, see note on Genesis 41:50) should be known as Rameses. The name was later also adopted by a number of Pharaohs.

Other sources identify Rameses with Tanis, Qantir or San el-Chagar.

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