Egypt (Goshen) מצרים — ארץ גושן
A land of plenty that became the house of bondage: here seventy people became a nation.
Egypt in the Tanakh is both a permanent temptation and a permanent threat. Avraham goes down there in famine; Yosef is sold there; Yaakov's household of seventy settles there. Pharaoh gives them Goshen in the eastern Delta — the best pasture land, kept apart because shepherds were an abomination to Egyptians. That separateness proves to be their preservation: they keep their names, language and dress.
After Yosef's death «a new king arose who did not know Yosef». The store cities of Pithom and Ramses are built, then comes the decree against the infants. The Torah calls Egypt an «iron furnace» — the place where a nation was smelted.
In Goshen the plagues divide: darkness, hail and the death of the firstborn do not touch Israelite homes. From there, on the night of 15 Nisan 2448, some six hundred thousand men and their families walk out.