Jeremiah’s Journey to Egypt

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Following the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, the prophet Jeremiah opted to spend his final years in Egypt. Although the Book of Jeremiah names a few of the places the prophet passed along his journey to Egypt, the precise route he took is never described. See how recent archaeological and geological evidence finally confirms the road that Jeremiah traveled.

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Footnotes

1. Nathan Steinmeyer, New Stele of Biblical Pharaoh Found,” Bible History Daily (blog), July 1, 2021.

Endnotes

1. The ideas presented here are treated in greater detail in James K. Hoffmeier, “The Hebrew Exodus from and Jeremiah’s Eisodus into Egypt in the Light of Recent Archaeological and Geological Developments,” Tyndale Bulletin 72 (2021), pp. 73–95.

2. Mohamed Abd el-Maksoud, “Tjarou: Porte de l’Oriente,” in D. Valbelle and C. Bonnet, eds., Le Sinaï durant l’antiquité et le Moyen Âge: 4000 ans d’histoire pour un de´sert; Actes du colloque “Sinaï” qui s’est tenu a` l’UNESCO du 19 au 21 septembre 1997 (Paris: Errance, 1998), pp. 61–65.

3. Some Bible translations render Shihor as “the Nile” (e.g., NRSV, ESV, NET), and Jeremiah’s parallel between Shihor and the Euphrates later in the verse might incline one to think a river is intended. However, in Papyrus Anastasi III (dated to c. 1200 BC), Shihor is referenced together with another border lake, Pa-Tjufy. The Egyptian word Tjufy is a cognate with Hebrew suf (“reeds” or “rushes”) and has been associated with Yam Suf (“Sea of Reeds”) of the Exodus tradition.

4. Eliezer D. Oren, “Migdol: A New Fortress on the Edge of the Eastern Nile Delta,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 256 (1984), pp. 7–44.

5. François Leclère, “Tell Dafana: Identity, Explorations and Monuments,” in F. Leclère and A.J. Spencer, eds., Tell Dafana Reconsidered: The Archaeology of an Egyptian Frontier Town (London: The British Museum, 2014), pp. 1–40.

6. Mohamed Abd el-Maksoud and Dominique Valbelle, “Une stèle de l’an 7 d’Apries découverte sur le site de Tell Défenneh,” Revue d’Égyptologie 64 (2013), pp. 1–13.