Yam Suph

In the Exodus narrative, the Yam Suph (Hebrew: יַם-סוּף, romanized: Yam-Sup̄, lit. 'Reed Sea'), sometimes translated as Red Sea, is the body of water where the Crossing of the Red Sea happened in the story of the Exodus. This phrase appears in over twenty other places in the Hebrew Bible. This has traditionally been interpreted as referring to the Red Sea, following the Septuagint's rendering of the phrase. However, an appropriate translation remains a matter of dispute, as is the exact location.

Heinrich Karl Brugsch suggested that the Reed Sea is Lake Bardawil, a large lagoon on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula. More recently, Manfred Bietak and James K. Hoffmeier have argued for an identification with the Ballah Lakes. Hoffmeier equates the Yam Suf with the Egyptian term pꜣ-ṯwfj "the papyrus marsh" from the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt, which refers to lakes in the eastern Nile Delta. He also describes references to pꜣ-ṯwfj in the context of the Island of Amun, considered modern Tell el-Balamun. Reeds tolerant of saltwater flourish in the shallow string of lakes extending from Suez north to the Mediterranean Sea, which Kenneth Kitchen argues are acceptable locations for the Yam Suf.