Zoan: (Old Egypt. Sant= "stronghold," the modern San). A city on the Tanitic
branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It was built seven
years after Hebron in Palestine (Numbers 13:22) This great and important
city was the capital of the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who ruled
Egypt for more than 500 years. It was the frontier town of Goshen.
Here Pharaoh was holding his court at the time of his various
interviews with Moses and Aaron. "No trace of Zoan exists; Tanis was
built over it, and city after city has been built over the ruins of
that" (Harper, Bible and Modern Discovery). Extensive mounds of
ruins, the wreck of the ancient city, now mark its site
(Isaiah 19:11,13; 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14) "The whole constitutes one of the
grandest and oldest ruins in the world." This city was also called
"the Field of Zoan" (Psalms 78:12,43) and "the Town of Rameses" (q.v.),
because the oppressor rebuilt and embellished it, probably by the
forced labour of the Hebrews, and made it his northern capital.
