Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

96

CITIES OF EGYPT.

This is what we feel with startling force as we actually
see Mount Carmel and Gilboa when the coast of
Palestine rises before our view. But this is not all. As
we fix the town of Goshen, the centre of the administra-
tion of the land of Goshen, we know where to dig for
the Egyptian records of the Hebrew sojourn. The
town is not a mere symbol in ancient maps ; its name
still survives on the old site, where extensive mounds
bear witness to its former wealth. There, a little below
the earth that we are too indifferent to turn, lie count-
less fragments of history, probably documents of the
rule of Joseph and of the age of the Oppression.

Thus we can place the land of Goshen on the map,
with the chief town of the same name. In the case of
the town this was its civil name, which, as often happens
in the border-land, was not Egyptian but Hebrew.
There was another land of Goshen, conquered by
Joshua, in southern Palestine (Josh. x. 41; xi. 16). The
meaning of the name is doubtful; perhaps it is ' watered
by rain,' and thus ' fertile,' the first sense suited to Pales-
tine and the second to Egypt. Eastern settlers would
have carried the name of a favoured territory with them,
and given it to a new home. The sacred name of the