Psalm 78/Notes/Grammar.v. 12.333926

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v. 12 – Zoan (modern day Tanis; cf. the LXX, Jerome, TgPs) is about 20km north of Rameses (modern day Qantir), a store city that the Israelites are said to have constructed in Exodus 1:11. As well as its proximity to the Israelite activity and plausible setting for much of their labor, there may be a few other motivating factors for the mention of Zoan both here and in v. 43. First, "it served as the seat of the Egyptian royal court from 1070-725 B.C.E" (Leuchter 2006, 21), so may have provided further rhetorical force for YHWH's superiority on a level of international relations beyond Israel in the north, with his special elective favor on Judah/David/Zion. Second, the alliteration and (almost) assonance between צֹעַן and both צִ֝יּ֗וֹן (v. 68) and צֹֽאן (v. 70) is more striking than if another location had been mentioned (Leuchter 2006, 22).