The Hebrew pi answers to the modern Arabic word fum, signifying “mouth;” and is generally applied to the passes in the mountains. In the English and Septuagint versions, Hahiroth is taken as a proper name; and the whole word would imply the mouth or pass of Hahiroth or Hiroth, whatever particular origin or signification may belong to that word. The name, however, sufficiently explains the situation of the children of Israel; who were hemmed in at this place, between the sea in front, and a narrow mountain pass behind; which no doubt encouraged Pharaoh to make his attack upon them in so disadvantageous a position; thinking that they must inevitably fall an easy prey into his hands, or be cut to pieces: when their deliverance, and his own destruction, were unexpectedly wrought by the parting of the waters of the sea. The place where this miracle is supposed to have happened, is still called Bahral- Kolsum, or the Sea of Destruction; and just opposite to the situation which answers to the opening called Pi-hahiroth, is a bay, where the north cape is called Ras Musa, or the Cape of Moses. That part of the western or Heroopolitan branch of the Red Sea where, from these coincidences, the passage most probably took place, is described by Bruce as about three leagues over, with fourteen fathoms of water in the channel, nine at the sides, and good anchorage every where. The farther side is also represented as a low sandy coast, and an easy landing place. See RED SEA.
Pi–hahi´roth, a place near the northern end of the Gulf of Suez, east of Baal-zephon (Exo 14:2; Exo 14:9; Num 33:7). The Hebrew signification of the words would be equivalent to ’mouth of the caverns;’ but it is doubtless an Egyptian name, and as such would signify a ’place where grass or sedge grows.’
Pi-hahi’roth. A place before, or at, which the Israelites encamped, at the close of the third march from Rameses, (the last place before they crossed the Red Sea), when they went out of Egypt. Exo 14:2; Exo 14:9; Num 35:7-8. It is an Egyptian word, signifying "the place where sedge grows".
By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn
A place in the wilderness where the Israelites encamped when they turned back from Etham. It lay between Migdol and the sea "before Baal-zephon" (Ex. xiv. 2, 9; Num. xxxiii. 7, 8). The etymology of the name, which is apparently Egyptian, was the subject of much speculation by the ancient commentators. The Septuagint, while treating the word as a proper name in Numbers (
by 
. The Mekilta (Beshallaḥ, Wayeḥi, 1) identifies the place with Pithom, which was called Pi-hahiroth (= "the mouth of freedom") after the Israelites had been freed from bondage, the place itself being specified as a valley between two high rocks. The Targum of pseudo-Jonathan (ad loc.), while following the Mekilta in the interpretation of "Pi-hahiroth," identifies the place with Tanis.
The theory of an Egyptian etymology was advanced by Jablonsky, who compared it to the Coptic "pi-akhirot" = "the place where sedge grows," and by Naville, who explained the name as "the house of the goddess Ḳerhet." On the basis of this latter explanation, Fulgence Fresnel identified Pihahiroth with the modern Ghuwaibat al-Bus (="the bed of reeds"), near Ras Atakah.
Bibliography:
Selbie, in Hastings, Dict. Bible.
PI-HAHIROTH (Exo 14:2; Exo 14:9, Num 33:7-8).—Mentioned in connexion with the camping of the israelites. It was ‘between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon’ (Exo 14:9). This definition does not enable us to fix its site, for these other places are themselves unknown. In Num 33:8 the name is simply Hahiroth.
1. Meaning of Name:
Nothing is known of the meaning of the name.
2. Location:
Neither Pi-Hahiroth nor any other place mentioned with it can be exactly located. A recent discovery of manuscripts in Egypt furnishes a mention of this place, but affords very little assistance in locating it, nothing comparable to the account in the Bible itself. If any one of the places mentioned in connection with the crossing of the Red Sea could be located approximately, all the others could, also, be similarly located by the description given in the account in Exodus. The route beyond the Sea has been made out with almost positive certainty. A journey along the way is so convincing that hardly anything can shake the conviction which it produces. This identification of the route of the exodus beyond the Sea requires the place of the crossing to be within 3 days’ journey of Marah, which puts it somewhere near the modern Suez. It may be anywhere within 10 miles of that point. This approximately locates all the other places mentioned in connection with the crossing: Migdol must be