Goshen

Goshen was a region in Egypt where the Israelites lived during their stay in Egypt. They lived there from the time of Joseph until the exodus, when God brought them out of Egypt.

Genesis 46–47 gives several details about Goshen:

It was a real region within Egypt.

It was the place where Joseph met his father, Jacob, after many years apart. Jacob had moved his family to Egypt.

It was a good place for grazing flocks and herds. Egyptians also used this area for raising animals. At one time, rulers from Thebes sent their cattle to the Nile Delta for pasture, even though the Hyksos controlled the area. The Hyksos were foreign rulers who controlled part of Egypt for a time.

Genesis describes Goshen as “the best of the land” in two different verses (Genesis 47:6, 11). It also identifies Goshen with the “land of Rameses.”

It may have had a military outpost on its eastern border. It also may not have had many Egyptian people living there.

The name Goshen does not come from the Egyptian language. It is a Semitic name, from the language family used by peoples such as the Israelites and Arameans. This suggests that Semitic people lived in the region before Egypt’s New Kingdom period. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the phrase “Gesem of Arabia” instead of “land of Goshen” in Genesis 45:10 and 46:34. Ptolemy, an ancient geographer, said that Egyptians used the name Arabia for the eastern border of the Nile Delta. This may explain why the Septuagint uses that wording.

Goshen was a region of about 1,448 square kilometers (900 square miles). It had two main districts. The western district ran from Zoan to Bubastis. This was about 56 kilometers (35 miles) from north to south. This area was a flat plain with irrigation, so it had some of the richest farmland in Egypt. It is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide near the Mediterranean Sea. It narrows to about 16 kilometers (10 miles) between Zagazig and Tell el-Kebir on the south.

The eastern district included a large desert area between the Nile Plain and Suez. From Daphnai south to the Wadi Tumilat, it became wider. At that point, it was about 64 kilometers (40 miles) from east to west. South of this area, more desert reached toward Suez. It stretched from the Bitter Lakes in the east to Heliopolis in the west.

The shape and location of Goshen help us think about the route of the exodus. The exodus was the journey when God brought Israel out of Egypt. Based on this description, the Wadi Tumilat was probably the most practical route to the Red Sea for people moving with flocks and herds. This route would have gone from the south side of the field of Zoan, near Bubastis. It then would have continued east, along the edge of the wilderness and near the northern end of the Bitter Lakes.

Goshen was also the name of an area in the land that the Israelites conquered and settled under Joshua. Joshua 10:41 calls it the "region of Goshen." Joshua 11:16 calls it the "land of Goshen." This area was probably in the hill country of Judah, between Hebron and the Negev.

Goshen was also the name of a town in the territory of Judah (Joshua 15:51). It may have been the central city of the Goshen region in Judah, but this is uncertain.