Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Egyptian, Pa-Tum, “house of Tum,” the sun-god, one of the “treasure” cities built for Pharaoh Rameses II. by the Israelites (Ex. 1:11). It was probably the Patumos of the Greek historian Herodotus. It has now been satisfactorily identified with Tell-el-Maskhuta, about 12 miles west of Ismailia, and 20 east of Tel-el-Kebir, on the southern bank of the present Suez Canal. Here have recently (1883) been discovered the ruins of supposed
grain-chambers, and other evidences to show that this was a great “store city.” Its immense ruin-heaps show that it was built of bricks, and partly also of bricks without straw. Succoth (Ex. 12:37) is supposed by some to be the secular name of this city, Pithom being its sacred name. This was the first halting-place of the Israelites in their exodus. It has been argued (Dr. Lansing) that these “store” cities “were residence cities,
royal dwellings, such as the Pharaohs of old, the Kings of Israel, and our modern Khedives have ever loved to build, thus giving employment to the superabundant muscle of their enslaved peoples, and making a name for themselves.”
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(the city of justice), one of the store-cites Israelites for the first oppressor, the Pharaoh “which knew not Joseph.” (Exodus 1:11) It is probably the Patumus of Herodotus (ii. 1 159), a town on the borders of Egypt, nest which Necho constructed a canal from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
PI'THOM (house, or temple, of Tum, who was the Sun-god of Heliopolis), a "treasure city," or depot of provisions, built by the Israelites in Goshen. Ex 1:11. It was probably not far from the "Bitter Lakes" of Suez and near the canal. Some critics identify it with the Patoumos of Herodotus and the Thoum of the Antonine Itinerary, between Heliopolis and Pelusium, 50 Roman miles from the former and 48 miles from the latter. M. Naville identifies
Pithom with PaTum, "setting sun," and with Tel el-Maskhuta, where he made excavations in 1883, and found remarkable ruins, brick grain-chambers, and similar evidences of a "store city." The conclusions of M. Naville have been disputed, but Poole, Sayce, and other Egyptologists accept his '"find" as settling the question of Pithom. According to this view, Rameses II. was its founder.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
their mouthful; a dilatation of the mouth