Pi-Hahiroth

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PI-HAHIROTH

PI-HAHIROTH (Heb. פִּי הַחִירֹת, Hahiroth), town E. of Baal-Zephon, near Migdol, in the East Delta of Egypt (Num. 33:7). At the beginning of the Exodus the Israelites encamped near Pi-Hahiroth, whose site is yet to be identified. A.H. Gardiner (see bibl.) suggests that the town's name is an alteration of Pr-Ḥtḥr ("the house of Hathor"), mentioned in various Egyptian documents. The Septuagint translates Pi-Hahiroth either as "the mouth of Hiroth" – i.e., considering פִּי as the Hebrew word for "mouth" and not as part of the name – (cf. Num. 33:8, where the Hebrew text also omits פִּי), or as "the encampment" (cf. lxx, Ex. 14:2, 9), as though the Hebrew text did not use the name (Heb. פִּי הַחִירֹת), but rather a word meaning encampment.

bibliography:

A.H. Gardiner, in: Recueil d'études égyptologiques dédiées à la mémoire de Jean-François Champollion (1922), 213; H. Gauthier, Dictionnaire des noms géographiques contenus dans les textes hiéroglyphiques, 2 (1925), 117; P. Montet, La stèle du Roi Kamose (1956), 115.