다른 표기: 이집트,Egypt,Egyptian,fortress,besieged,defence,rebellion,Rahab,Egyptians,Ham
[Easton 한국어 번역]
나일강과 피라미드의 땅으로서, 우리에게 기록이 전해지는 가장 오래된 왕국이며 성경에서 매우 중요한 위치를 차지한다.
애굽인들은 백인종에 속하였으며, 그들의 원래 고향이 어디인지는 여전히 논쟁의 대상이다. 많은 학자들은 그곳이 아라비아 남부였다고 믿는다. 최근의 발굴은 역사에 나타나는 애굽인들이 나일강 유역에 들어오기 전에, 아마도 흑인종 계통에 속했을지도 모르는 낮은 수준의 주민들이 그곳에 살았음을 보여 주었다. 고대 애굽어는 그 가장 후기 형태가 콥트어이며, 셈어족과 먼 연관이 있다.
애굽은 지리적으로 두 부분으로 이루어져 있다. 북부는 삼각주이고, 남부는 카이로와 제1폭포 사이에 있는 상애굽이다. 구약에서 북애굽 또는 하애굽은 “요새화된 땅”이라는 뜻의 마졸이라 불린다(이사야 19:6; 37:25. 이곳에서 흠정역은 이를 “방어”와 “포위된 곳들”로 잘못 번역하였다). 한편 남애굽 또는 상애굽은 바드로스인데, 애굽어로 파토레스, 곧 “남쪽 땅”이라는 뜻이다(이사야 11:11). 그러나 나라 전체는 일반적으로 “두 마졸”이라는 뜻의 쌍수형 이름 미스라임으로 언급된다.
애굽 문명의 기원은 아주 먼 고대로 거슬러 올라간다. 남북의 두 왕국은 역사상 첫 왕조의 창건자인 메네스에 의하여 통일되었다. 처음 여섯 왕조는 이른바 고왕국을 이룬다. 그 수도는 카이로 남쪽의 멤피스였으며, 구약에서는 므브(호세아 9:6)와 놉이라 불린다. 토착 이름은 “좋은 곳”이라는 뜻의 멘노페르였다.
피라미드는 고왕국 군주들의 무덤이었으며, 기자의 피라미드들은 제4왕조 때 세워졌다. 고왕국이 무너진 뒤에는 쇠퇴와 암흑의 시기가 찾아왔다. 그 뒤를 이은 것이 중왕국이며, 그중 가장 강력한 왕조는 제12왕조였다. 파이윰은 제12왕조의 왕들에 의하여 농경지로 개간되었다. 또한 온, 곧 헬리오폴리스(카이로 부근)에 있는 태양신의 신전 앞에 두 개의 오벨리스크가 세워졌는데, 그중 하나는 아직도 서 있다. 중왕국의 수도는 상애굽의 데베였다.
중왕국은 아시아에서 온 힉소스, 곧 목자 군주들의 침입으로 무너졌다. 그들은 수백 년 동안 애굽, 특히 북부를 다스렸으며 세 왕조를 이루었다. 그들의 수도는 삼각주 북동부의 소안, 곧 타니스(오늘날의 산)에 있었다. 아브라함과 야곱과 요셉이 애굽에 들어온 것은 힉소스 시대였다. 힉소스는 마침내 주전 1600년경 데베의 세습 군주들에 의하여 쫓겨났다. 이 군주들은 제18왕조를 세우고 전쟁을 아시아로 확대하였다. 가나안과 수리아뿐 아니라 구브로까지 정복되었고, 애굽 제국의 경계는 유브라데강에 이르렀다. 제12왕조의 왕들이 정복하였던 수단은 다시 애굽에 병합되었으며, 바로의 맏아들은 “구스의 군주”라는 칭호를 받았다.
이 왕조 후반의 왕들 가운데 한 사람인 아메노피스 4세, 곧 쿠엔아텐은 애굽의 옛 국가 종교를 아시아에서 유래한 새로운 신앙으로 대체하려고 하였다. 그것은 일종의 범신론적 일신교로서, 하나의 지고한 신을 태양 원반의 형상 아래 경배하는 것이었다. 이 시도는 종교 전쟁과 내전으로 이어졌고, 바로는 데베에서 중부 애굽으로 물러나 오늘날 텔엘아마르나가 있는 자리에 새로운 수도를 세웠다. 그곳에서 발견된 설형문자 점토판들은 그의 외교 서신들이다(주전 1400년경). 그는 아시아계, 특히 가나안계 관리와 궁정 신하들을 주변에 두었다. 그러나 토착 세력이 마침내 정권을 무너뜨리는 데 성공하였고, 쿠엔아텐의 수도는 파괴되었으며, 외국인들은 나라 밖으로 쫓겨났다. 남아 있던 사람들은 농노 신분으로 전락하였다.
이러한 민족적 승리는 제19왕조의 등장으로 나타났다. 우리는 그 창건자인 람세스 1세를 “요셉을 알지 못하는 새 임금”으로 보아야 한다. 그의 손자 람세스 2세는 67년 동안 통치하였으며(주전 1348-1281년), 지칠 줄 모르는 건설자였다. 1883년에 나빌 박사가 발굴한 비돔은 그가 건설한 성읍 가운데 하나였으므로, 그는 틀림없이 압제 당시의 바로였을 것이다. 출애굽 당시의 바로는 통치 기간이 짧았던 그의 직계 후계자들 가운데 한 사람이었을지도 모른다. 그들의 통치 아래서 애굽은 아시아의 제국 영토를 잃었으며, 애굽 자체도 리비아와 북방에서 온 야만족들의 공격을 받았다.
얼마 지나지 않아 제19왕조는 끝났고, 애굽은 내전으로 분열되었다. 잠시 동안 가나안 사람 아리수가 그곳을 다스렸다.
그다음에 제20왕조가 들어섰으며, 그 두 번째 바로인 람세스 3세가 나라의 세력을 회복하였다. 그는 한 원정에서 팔레스타인 남부를 휩쓸었는데, 그곳에는 이스라엘 사람들이 아직 정착하지 않은 상태였다. 당시 그들은 틀림없이 여전히 광야에 있었을 것이다. 그러나 애굽이 가사와 그 인근 성읍들을 최종적으로 잃은 것도 람세스 3세의 통치 때였다. 이 성읍들은 풀리스타, 곧 블레셋 사람들에게 점령되었다.
람세스 3세 이후 애굽은 쇠퇴하였다. 솔로몬은 제21왕조 말기의 왕들 가운데 한 사람의 딸과 결혼하였다. 이 왕조는 리비아 용병대의 장군 시삭 1세에 의하여 무너졌으며, 그는 제22왕조를 세웠다(열왕기상 11:40; 14:25, 26). 그가 팔레스타인에서 점령한 장소들의 목록이 카르나크 신전 남쪽 벽의 바깥면에 새겨져 있다.
히스기야 시대에 애굽은 수단에서 온 에디오피아 사람들에게 정복되었으며, 이들이 제25왕조를 이루었다. 그들 가운데 세 번째 왕이 디르하가였다(열왕기하 19:9). 주전 674년에 애굽은 앗수르 사람들에게 정복되었다. 앗수르 사람들은 애굽을 스무 개의 총독령으로 나누었으며, 디르하가는 조상 때부터 다스리던 영토로 쫓겨났다. 14년 뒤 애굽은 제26왕조의 창건자인 사이스 출신 프삼메티쿠스 1세 아래서 반란을 일으켜 성공하였다. 그의 후계자들 가운데는 느고(열왕기하 23:29)와 호브라, 곧 아프리에스(예레미야 37:5, 7, 11)가 있었다. 이 왕조는 주전 525년에 나라가 캄비세스에게 정복되면서 끝났다. 얼마 뒤 애굽은 바사의 한 총독령으로 편성되었다.
애굽 왕들에게 주어진 바로라는 칭호는 애굽어 페르아, 곧 “큰 집”이다. 이것은 “숭고한 문”이라는 칭호와 비교할 수 있다. 이 칭호는 아주 이른 시기의 애굽 문헌에도 나타난다.
애굽의 종교는 범신론과 동물 숭배가 기묘하게 뒤섞인 것이었으며, 신들은 동물의 형상으로 경배를 받았다. 교육받은 계층은 그들의 수많은 신들을 편재하고 전능한 하나의 신적 능력이 나타난 것들로 이해한 반면, 하층민들은 동물들을 신들의 화신으로 여겼다.
고왕국에서는 멤피스의 신인 창조주 프타가 신들 가운데 우두머리였다. 그 뒤에는 데베의 신 아몬이 그 자리를 차지하였다. 아몬은 다른 신들 대부분과 마찬가지로 헬리오폴리스의 태양신 라와 동일시되었다.
애굽인들은 부활과 내세를 믿었으며, 이 세상에서의 행실에 따라 상벌을 받는 상태도 믿었다. 죽은 자들의 심판자는 오시리스였는데, 그는 악을 대표하는 세트에게 죽임을 당하였다가 다시 살아난 자였다. 그의 아들 호루스가 그의 죽음에 대한 원수를 갚았으며, 애굽인들은 호루스를 그들의 “구속자”로 부르며 간구하였다. 오시리스와 호루스는 이시스와 함께 삼위일체를 이루었으며, 이들은 서로 다른 형태로 태양신을 나타내는 것으로 여겨졌다.
아브라함 시대에도 애굽은 번영하고 안정된 군주국이었다. 역사 시대에 가장 오래된 수도는 멤피스였으며, 그 폐허는 지금도 피라미드와 스핑크스 부근에서 볼 수 있다. 메네스의 고왕국이 끝났을 때 제국의 중심지는 나일강을 따라 약 300마일 더 상류에 있는 데베로 옮겨졌다. 그로부터 얼마 뒤 삼각주는 힉소스, 곧 목자 왕들에게 정복되었다. 그들은 나일강의 타니스 지류에 있는 소안, 곧 헬라어로 타니스이며 오늘날 산이라 불리는 곳을 수도로 정하였다. 이 모든 일은 “요셉을 알지 못하는” 새 임금의 시대 이전에 일어났다(출애굽기 1:8). 후대에 애굽은 바사 사람들에게 정복되었고(주전 525년), 이어 알렉산더 대왕이 이끄는 헬라인들에게 정복되었다(주전 332년). 그 뒤에는 프톨레마이오스 왕조가 3세기 동안 나라를 다스렸다. 그 후 한동안 로마 제국의 속주였으며, 마침내 주후 1517년에 튀르크인들의 손에 넘어갔다. 지금도 명목상으로는 그 제국의 일부를 이루고 있다. 아브라함과 사라는 목자 왕들의 시대에 애굽으로 갔다. 요셉이 타국으로 쫓겨난 일과 야곱이 “고센 땅”으로 이주한 일은 약 200년 뒤에 일어났다. 솔로몬이 죽자 애굽 왕 시삭이 팔레스타인을 침략하였다(열왕기상 14:25). 그는 자신이 정복한 성읍들의 목록을 남겼다.
상애굽의 텔엘아마르나에서 발견된 여러 주목할 만한 점토판은 성경과 관련하여 지금까지 발견된 역사 기록 가운데 가장 중요하다. 그것들은 여호수아서의 역사적 진술을 매우 충분히 확증하며, 수리아와 팔레스타인 문명이 오래되었음을 입증한다. 팔레스타인은 지역마다 점토가 다르므로, 작성자의 이름이 없어졌을 때에도 점토만으로 그 점토판의 출처를 알아낼 수 있음이 밝혀졌다. 명문들은 설형문자로 쓰였으며, 앗수르어와 유사한 아람어로 되어 있다. 작성자들은 베니게 사람과 아모리 사람과 블레셋 사람들이며, 헷 사람들이 언급되기는 하지만 작성자가 헷 사람인 경우는 하나도 없다. 이 점토판들은 주전 1480년부터 작성된 공식 보고와 서신들로 이루어져 있으며, 베니게와 팔레스타인의 왕들과 총독들이 이 왕조의 마지막 두 바로인 아메노피스 3세와 4세에게 보낸 것들이다. 여기에는 여호수아에게 죽임을 당한 세 왕의 이름이 나온다. 곧 예루살렘 왕 아도니세덱, 라기스 왕 야비아(여호수아 10:3), 하솔 왕 야빈(11:1)이다. 또한 히브리인들(아비리)이 광야에서 왔다고도 기록되어 있다.
애굽에 관한 성경의 주요 예언은 이사야 19장, 예레미야 43:8-13; 44:30; 46장, 에스겔 29-32장이다. 이 예언들이 모두 놀랍게 성취되었음을 어렵지 않게 보여 줄 수 있을 것이다. 예를 들어 놉, 곧 멤피스가 기이하게도 자취를 감춘 것은 예레미야 46:19과 에스겔 30:13의 성취이다.
영문 원문·다른 사전 펼치기
[Easton]
The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture.
The Egyptians belonged to the white race, and their original home is still a matter of dispute. Many scholars believe that it was in Southern Arabia, and recent excavations have shown that the valley of the Nile was originally inhabited by a low-class population, perhaps belonging to the Nigritian stock, before the Egyptians of history entered it. The ancient Egyptian language, of which the latest form is Coptic, is distantly connected with the Semitic family of speech.
Egypt consists geographically of two halves, the northern being the Delta, and the southern Upper Egypt, between Cairo and the First Cataract. In the Old Testament, Northern or Lower Egypt is called Mazor, “the fortified land” (Isa. 19:6; 37: 25, where the A.V. mistranslates “defence” and “besieged places”); while Southern or Upper Egypt is Pathros, the Egyptian Pa-to-Res, or “the land of the south” (Isa. 11:11). But the whole country is generally mentioned under the dual name of Mizraim, “the two Mazors.”
The civilization of Egypt goes back to a very remote antiquity. The two kingdoms of the north and south were united by Menes, the founder of the first historical dynasty of kings. The first six dynasties constitute what is known as the Old Empire, which had its capital at Memphis, south of Cairo, called in the Old Testament Moph (Hos. 9:6) and Noph. The native name was Mennofer, “the good place.”
The Pyramids were tombs of the monarchs of the Old Empire, those of Gizeh being erected in the time of the Fourth Dynasty. After the fall of the Old Empire came a period of decline and obscurity. This was followed by the Middle Empire, the most powerful dynasty of which was the Twelfth. The Fayyum was rescued for agriculture by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty; and two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of the sun-god at On or Heliopolis (near Cairo), one of which is still standing. The capital of the Middle Empire was Thebes, in Upper Egypt.
The Middle Empire was overthrown by the invasion of the Hyksos, or shepherd princes from Asia, who ruled over Egypt, more especially in the north, for several centuries, and of whom there were three dynasties of kings. They had their capital at Zoan or Tanis (now San), in the north-eastern part of the Delta. It was in the time of the Hyksos that Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph entered Egypt. The Hyksos were finally expelled about B.C. 1600, by the hereditary princes of Thebes, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty, and carried the war into Asia. Canaan and Syria were subdued, as well as Cyprus, and the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire were fixed at the Euphrates. The Soudan, which had been conquered by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, was again annexed to Egypt, and the eldest son of the Pharaoh took the title of “Prince of Cush.”
One of the later kings of the dynasty, Amenophis IV., or Khu-n-Aten, endeavoured to supplant the ancient state religion of Egypt by a new faith derived from Asia, which was a sort of pantheistic monotheism, the one supreme god being adored under the image of the solar disk. The attempt led to religious and civil war, and the Pharaoh retreated from Thebes to Central Egypt, where he built a new capital, on the site of the present Tell-el-Amarna. The cuneiform tablets that have been found there represent his foreign correspondence (about B.C. 1400). He surrounded himself with officials and courtiers of Asiatic, and more especially Canaanitish, extraction; but the native party succeeded eventually in overthrowing the government, the capital of Khu-n-Aten was destroyed, and the foreigners were driven out of the country, those that remained being reduced to serfdom.
The national triumph was marked by the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty, in the founder of which, Rameses I., we must see the “new king, who knew not Joseph.” His grandson, Rameses II., reigned sixty-seven years (B.C. 1348-1281), and was an indefatigable builder. As Pithom, excavated by Dr. Naville in 1883, was one of the cities he built, he must have been the Pharaoh of the Oppression. The Pharaoh of the Exodus may have been one of his immediate successors, whose reigns were short. Under them Egypt lost its empire in Asia, and was itself attacked by barbarians from Libya and the north.
The Nineteenth Dynasty soon afterwards came to an end; Egypt was distracted by civil war; and for a short time a Canaanite, Arisu, ruled over it.
Then came the Twentieth Dynasty, the second Pharaoh of which, Rameses III., restored the power of his country. In one of his campaigns he overran the southern part of Palestine, where the Israelites had not yet settled. They must at the time have been still in the wilderness. But it was during the reign of Rameses III. that Egypt finally lost Gaza and the adjoining cities, which were seized by the Pulista, or Philistines.
After Rameses III., Egypt fell into decay. Solomon married the daughter of one of the last kings of the Twenty-first Dynasty, which was overthrown by Shishak I., the general of the Libyan mercenaries, who founded the Twenty-second Dynasty (1 Kings 11:40; 14:25, 26). A list of the places he captured in Palestine is engraved on the outside of the south wall of the temple of Karnak.
In the time of Hezekiah, Egypt was conquered by Ethiopians from the Soudan, who constituted the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The third of them was Tirhakah (2 Kings 19:9). In B.C. 674 it was conquered by the Assyrians, who divided it into twenty satrapies, and Tirhakah was driven back to his ancestral dominions. Fourteen years later it successfully revolted under Psammetichus I. of Sais, the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Among his successors were Necho (2 Kings 23:29) and Hophra, or Apries (Jer. 37:5, 7, 11). The dynasty came to an end in B.C. 525, when the country was subjugated by Cambyses. Soon afterwards it was organized into a Persian satrapy.
The title of Pharaoh, given to the Egyptian kings, is the Egyptian Per-aa, or “Great House,” which may be compared to that of “Sublime Porte.” It is found in very early Egyptian texts.
The Egyptian religion was a strange mixture of pantheism and animal worship, the gods being adored in the form of animals. While the educated classes resolved their manifold deities into manifestations of one omnipresent and omnipotent divine power, the lower classes regarded the animals as incarnations of the gods.
Under the Old Empire, Ptah, the Creator, the god of Memphis, was at the head of the Pantheon; afterwards Amon, the god of Thebes, took his place. Amon, like most of the other gods, was identified with Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis.
The Egyptians believed in a resurrection and future life, as well as in a state of rewards and punishments dependent on our conduct in this world. The judge of the dead was Osiris, who had been slain by Set, the representative of evil, and afterwards restored to life. His death was avenged by his son Horus, whom the Egyptians invoked as their “Redeemer.” Osiris and Horus, along with Isis, formed a trinity, who were regarded as representing the sun-god under different forms.
Even in the time of Abraham, Egypt was a flourishing and settled monarchy. Its oldest capital, within the historic period, was Memphis, the ruins of which may still be seen near the Pyramids and the Sphinx. When the Old Empire of Menes came to an end, the seat of empire was shifted to Thebes, some 300 miles farther up the Nile. A short time after that, the Delta was conquered by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who fixed their capital at Zoan, the Greek Tanis, now San, on the Tanic arm of the Nile. All this occurred before the time of the new king “which knew not Joseph” (Ex. 1:8). In later times Egypt was conquered by the Persians (B.C. 525), and by the Greeks under Alexander the Great (B.C. 332), after whom the Ptolemies ruled the country for three centuries. Subsequently it was for a time a province of the Roman Empire; and at last, in A.D. 1517, it fell into the hands of the Turks, of whose empire it still forms nominally a part. Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt in the time of the shepherd kings. The exile of Joseph and the migration of Jacob to “the land of Goshen” occurred about 200 years later. On the death of Solomon, Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Palestine (1 Kings 14:25). He left a list of the cities he conquered.
A number of remarkable clay tablets, discovered at Tell-el-Amarna in Upper Egypt, are the most important historical records ever found in connection with the Bible. They most fully confirm the historical statements of the Book of Joshua, and prove the antiquity of civilization in Syria and Palestine. As the clay in different parts of Palestine differs, it has been found possible by the clay alone to decide where the tablets come from when the name of the writer is lost. The inscriptions are cuneiform, and in the Aramaic language, resembling Assyrian. The writers are Phoenicians, Amorites, and Philistines, but in no instance Hittites, though Hittites are mentioned. The tablets consist of official dispatches and letters, dating from B.C. 1480, addressed to the two Pharaohs, Amenophis III. and IV., the last of this dynasty, from the kings and governors of Phoenicia and Palestine. There occur the names of three kings killed by Joshua, Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, Japhia, king of Lachish (Josh. 10:3), and Jabin, king of Hazor (11:1); also the Hebrews (Abiri) are said to have come from the desert.
The principal prophecies of Scripture regarding Egypt are these, Isa. 19; Jer. 43: 8-13; 44:30; 46; Ezek. 29-32; and it might be easily shown that they have all been remarkably fulfilled. For example, the singular disappearance of Noph (i.e., Memphis) is a fulfilment of Jer. 46:19, Ezek. 30:13.
[Smith]
(land of the Copts), a country occupying the northeast angle of Africa. Its limits appear always to have been very nearly the same. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Palestine, Arabia and the Red Sea, on the south by Nubia, and on the west by the Great Desert. It is divided into upper Egypt—the valley of the Nile—and lower Egypt, the plain of the Delta, from the Greek letter; it is formed by the branching mouths of the Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea. The portions made fertile by the Nile comprise about 9582 square geographical miles, of which only about 5600 is under cultivation.—Encyc. Brit. The Delta extends about 200 miles along the Mediterranean, and Egypt is 520 miles long from north to south from the sea to the First Cataract. Names.—The common name of Egypt in the Bible is “Mizraim.” It is in the dual number, which indicates the two natural divisions of the country into an upper and a lower region. The Arabic name of Egypt—Mizr— signifies “red mud.” Egypt is also called in the Bible “the land of Ham,” (Psalms 105:23,27) comp. Psalms 78:51—a name most probably referring to Ham the son of Noah—and “Rahab,” the proud or insolent: these appear to be poetical appellations. The common ancient Egyptian name of the country is written in hieroglyphics Kem, which was perhaps pronounced Chem. This name signifies, in the ancient language and in Coptic, “black,” on account of the blackness of its alluvial soil. We may reasonably conjecture that Kem is the Egyptian equivalent of Ham. GENERAL APPEARANCE, CLIMATE, ETC.—The general appearance of the country cannot have greatly changed since the days of Moses. The whole country is remarkable for its extreme fertility, which especially strikes the beholder when the rich green of the fields is contrasted with the utterly bare, yellow mountains or the sand-strewn rocky desert on either side. The climate is equable and healthy. Rain is not very unfrequent on the northern coast, but inland is very rare. Cultivation nowhere depends upon it. The inundation of the Nile fertilizes and sustains the country, and makes the river its chief blessing. The Nile was on this account anciently worshipped. The rise begins in Egypt about the summer solstice, and the inundation commences about two months later. The greatest height is attained about or somewhat after the autumnal equinox. The inundation lasts about three months. The atmosphere, except on the seacoast, is remarkably dry and clear, which accounts for the so perfect preservation of the monuments, with their pictures and inscriptions. The heat is extreme during a large part of the year. The winters are mild,—from 50
[Hitchcock]
that troubles or oppresses; anguish
[Nave]
–1. The country of
.Called RAHAB Ps 87:4 ; 89:10
.LAND OF HAM Ps 105:23 ; 106:22
.Limits of Eze 29:10
.Fertility of Ge 13:10
.Productions of Nu 11:5 ; Ps 78:47 ; Pr 7:16 ; Isa 19:5-9
.Irrigation employed in De 11:10
.Imports of Ge 37:25 , 36
.Exports of Ge 37:25 , 36 ; 1Ki 10:28 , 29 ; Pr 7:16 ; Eze 27:7
.Of horses 1Ki 10:28 , 29
.Famine in Ge 41 ; Ac 7:11
.Armies of Ex 14:7 ; Isa 31:1
.Army of destroyed in the Red Sea Ex 14:5-31 ; Isa 43:17
.Magi of Ge 41:8 ; Ex 7:11 ; 1Ki 4:30 ; Ac 7:22
.Priests of Ge 41:45 ; 47:22
.Idols of Eze 20:7 , 8
.Overflowed by the Nile River Am 8:8 ; 9:5
.Plagues in
.See PLAGUES
.Joseph’s captivity in, and subsequent rule over
See JOSEPH
.Civil war in Isa 19:2
.The king acquires title to land of Ge 47:18-26
.Abraham lives in Ge 12:10-20 ; 13:1
.Israelites in bondage in
See ISRAELITES
.Joseph takes Jesus to Mt 2:13-20
.Prophecies against Ge 15:13 , 14 ; Isa 19 ; 20:2-6 ; 45:14 ;
Jer 9:25 , 26 ; 43:8-13 ; 44:30 ; 46 ; Eze 29 ; 30 ; 31 ; 32 ; Ho 8:13 ; Joe 3:11 ; Zec 10:11
.See EGYPTIANS
.SYMBOLICAL Re 11:8
–2. RIVER, OR BROOK (R. V.), OF: Perhaps identical with SIHOR , which see
.A small stream flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, the western
boundary of the land promised to the children of Israel Ge 15:18 ; Nu 34:5 ;
Jos 13:3 ; 15:4 , 47 ; 1Ki 8:65 ; 2Ki 24:7 ; Isa 27:12 ; Eze 47:19 ; 48:28
[OpenBible.info]
region
[STEPBible TIPNR]
A location first mentioned at Gen.12.10)
referred to as Egypt or Egyptian (מִצְרַ֫יִם), or Egypt (מָצוֹר), or Egypt (מְרִי), or Rahab (רַ֫הַב), or Egyptian or Egypt or Egyptian women (מִצְרִי), or Ham (חָם), or Egypt (Αἴγυπτος), or Egyptian (Αἰγύπτιος).
[Theographic]
The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture.
The Egyptians belonged to the white race, and their original home is still a matter of dispute. Many scholars believe that it was in Southern Arabia, and recent excavations have shown that the valley of the Nile was originally inhabited by a low-class population, perhaps belonging to the Nigritian stock, before the Egyptians of history entered it. The ancient Egyptian language, of which the latest form is Coptic, is distantly connected with the Semitic family of speech.
Egypt consists geographically of two halves, the northern being the Delta, and the southern Upper Egypt, between Cairo and the First Cataract. In the Old Testament, Northern or Lower Egypt is called Mazor, “the fortified land” (Isa. 19:6; 37: 25, where the A.V. mistranslates “defence” and “besieged places”); while Southern or Upper Egypt is Pathros, the Egyptian Pa-to-Res, or “the land of the south” (Isa. 11:11). But the whole country is generally mentioned under the dual name of Mizraim, “the two Mazors.”
The civilization of Egypt goes back to a very remote antiquity. The two kingdoms of the north and south were united by Menes, the founder of the first historical dynasty of kings. The first six dynasties constitute what is known as the Old Empire, which had its capital at Memphis, south of Cairo, called in the Old Testament Moph (Hos. 9:6) and Noph. The native name was Mennofer, “the good place.”
The Pyramids were tombs of the monarchs of the Old Empire, those of Gizeh being erected in the time of the Fourth Dynasty. After the fall of the Old Empire came a period of decline and obscurity. This was followed by the Middle Empire, the most powerful dynasty of which was the Twelfth. The Fayyum was rescued for agriculture by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty; and two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of the sun-god at On or Heliopolis (near Cairo), one of which is still standing. The capital of the Middle Empire was Thebes, in Upper Egypt.
The Middle Empire was overthrown by the invasion of the Hyksos, or shepherd princes from Asia, who ruled over Egypt, more especially in the north, for several centuries, and of whom there were three dynasties of kings. They had their capital at Zoan or Tanis (now San), in the north-eastern part of the Delta. It was in the time of the Hyksos that Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph entered Egypt. The Hyksos were finally expelled about B.C. 1600, by the hereditary princes of Thebes, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty, and carried the war into Asia. Canaan and Syria were subdued, as well as Cyprus, and the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire were fixed at the Euphrates. The Soudan, which had been conquered by the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, was again annexed to Egypt, and the eldest son of the Pharaoh took the title of “Prince of Cush.”
One of the later kings of the dynasty, Amenophis IV., or Khu-n-Aten, endeavoured to supplant the ancient state religion of Egypt by a new faith derived from Asia, which was a sort of pantheistic monotheism, the one supreme god being adored under the image of the solar disk. The attempt led to religious and civil war, and the Pharaoh retreated from Thebes to Central Egypt, where he built a new capital, on the site of the present Tell-el-Amarna. The cuneiform tablets that have been found there represent his foreign correspondence (about B.C. 1400). He surrounded himself with officials and courtiers of Asiatic, and more especially Canaanitish, extraction; but the native party succeeded eventually in overthrowing the government, the capital of Khu-n-Aten was destroyed, and the foreigners were driven out of the country, those that remained being reduced to serfdom.
The national triumph was marked by the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty, in the founder of which, Rameses I., we must see the “new king, who knew not Joseph.” His grandson, Rameses II., reigned sixty-seven years (B.C. 1348-1281), and was an indefatigable builder. As Pithom, excavated by Dr. Naville in 1883, was one of the cities he built, he must have been the Pharaoh of the Oppression. The Pharaoh of the Exodus may have been one of his immediate successors, whose reigns were short. Under them Egypt lost its empire in Asia, and was itself attacked by barbarians from Libya and the north.
The Nineteenth Dynasty soon afterwards came to an end; Egypt was distracted by civil war; and for a short time a Canaanite, Arisu, ruled over it.
Then came the Twentieth Dynasty, the second Pharaoh of which, Rameses III., restored the power of his country. In one of his campaigns he overran the southern part of Palestine, where the Israelites had not yet settled. They must at the time have been still in the wilderness. But it was during the reign of Rameses III. that Egypt finally lost Gaza and the adjoining cities, which were seized by the Pulista, or Philistines.
After Rameses III., Egypt fell into decay. Solomon married the daughter of one of the last kings of the Twenty-first Dynasty, which was overthrown by Shishak I., the general of the Libyan mercenaries, who founded the Twenty-second Dynasty (1 Kings 11:40; 14:25, 26). A list of the places he captured in Palestine is engraved on the outside of the south wall of the temple of Karnak.
In the time of Hezekiah, Egypt was conquered by Ethiopians from the Soudan, who constituted the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The third of them was Tirhakah (2 Kings 19:9). In B.C. 674 it was conquered by the Assyrians, who divided it into twenty satrapies, and Tirhakah was driven back to his ancestral dominions. Fourteen years later it successfully revolted under Psammetichus I. of Sais, the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Among his successors were Necho (2 Kings 23:29) and Hophra, or Apries (Jer. 37:5, 7, 11). The dynasty came to an end in B.C. 525, when the country was subjugated by Cambyses. Soon afterwards it was organized into a Persian satrapy.
The title of Pharaoh, given to the Egyptian kings, is the Egyptian Per-aa, or “Great House,” which may be compared to that of “Sublime Porte.” It is found in very early Egyptian texts.
The Egyptian religion was a strange mixture of pantheism and animal worship, the gods being adored in the form of animals. While the educated classes resolved their manifold deities into manifestations of one omnipresent and omnipotent divine power, the lower classes regarded the animals as incarnations of the gods.
Under the Old Empire, Ptah, the Creator, the god of Memphis, was at the head of the Pantheon; afterwards Amon, the god of Thebes, took his place. Amon, like most of the other gods, was identified with Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis.
The Egyptians believed in a resurrection and future life, as well as in a state of rewards and punishments dependent on our conduct in this world. The judge of the dead was Osiris, who had been slain by Set, the representative of evil, and afterwards restored to life. His death was avenged by his son Horus, whom the Egyptians invoked as their “Redeemer.” Osiris and Horus, along with Isis, formed a trinity, who were regarded as representing the sun-god under different forms.
Even in the time of Abraham, Egypt was a flourishing and settled monarchy. Its oldest capital, within the historic period, was Memphis, the ruins of which may still be seen near the Pyramids and the Sphinx. When the Old Empire of Menes came to an end, the seat of empire was shifted to Thebes, some 300 miles farther up the Nile. A short time after that, the Delta was conquered by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who fixed their capital at Zoan, the Greek Tanis, now San, on the Tanic arm of the Nile. All this occurred before the time of the new king “which knew not Joseph” (Ex. 1:8). In later times Egypt was conquered by the Persians (B.C. 525), and by the Greeks under Alexander the Great (B.C. 332), after whom the Ptolemies ruled the country for three centuries. Subsequently it was for a time a province of the Roman Empire; and at last, in A.D. 1517, it fell into the hands of the Turks, of whose empire it still forms nominally a part. Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt in the time of the shepherd kings. The exile of Joseph and the migration of Jacob to “the land of Goshen” occurred about 200 years later. On the death of Solomon, Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Palestine (1 Kings 14:25). He left a list of the cities he conquered.
A number of remarkable clay tablets, discovered at Tell-el-Amarna in Upper Egypt, are the most important historical records ever found in connection with the Bible. They most fully confirm the historical statements of the Book of Joshua, and prove the antiquity of civilization in Syria and Palestine. As the clay in different parts of Palestine differs, it has been found possible by the clay alone to decide where the tablets come from when the name of the writer is lost. The inscriptions are cuneiform, and in the Aramaic language, resembling Assyrian. The writers are Phoenicians, Amorites, and Philistines, but in no instance Hittites, though Hittites are mentioned. The tablets consist of official dispatches and letters, dating from B.C. 1480, addressed to the two Pharaohs, Amenophis III. and IV., the last of this dynasty, from the kings and governors of Phoenicia and Palestine. There occur the names of three kings killed by Joshua, Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, Japhia, king of Lachish (Josh. 10:3), and Jabin, king of Hazor (11:1); also the Hebrews (Abiri) are said to have come from the desert.
The principal prophecies of Scripture regarding Egypt are these, Isa. 19; Jer. 43: 8-13; 44:30; 46; Ezek. 29-32; and it might be easily shown that they have all been remarkably fulfilled. For example, the singular disappearance of Noph (i.e., Memphis) is a fulfilment of Jer. 46:19, Ezek. 30:13.
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