Bricks without Straw

Bricks Without Straw

Exodus 5:1-21

Pithom was one of the store cities which the Israelites were forced to build for the Egyptians.  Its name means “the house of Tom”, Egypt's sun god.  In it were kept anything which the Egyptians had to keep from the hands of those they were warring with.  Entering through the city's one gate the heat becomes stifling as the slight breeze is completely cut off.  The wall surrounding the city was 24 feet thick, 30 feet high, and made of brick.  Walking around the inside of the wall you come to the temple of Tom.  Covered with marble, its bright white stands is stark contrast to the deep red of the mud bricks.  Most of the rest of the city is filled with subterranean rooms lined with the same brick as the walls.  All of the store rooms were filled with various articles; gold, silver, grain, spices, and weapons.  This is one of the cities which the Israelites were forced to build by Pharaoh.  Pithom is placed along the modern day Suez Canal, and is on the edge of the dessert.  The days are unbearably hot, and the nights unutterably cold.  The work camps for a project like this would have a vast city of small tents which offer little protection from either of these problems.