the plagues of Egypt were inflicted "in the field of Zoan." Psalm lxxviii. 12. And it continued perhaps to be a seat of government even in Isaiah's time. "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish." Isa. xix. 11. Wy, Tsoan, is constantly rendered by the Septuagint, Tanin, or Tanis; according to the same analogy that Tsur was called Tup-oç, or Tyre, by the Greeks. But Tanis was situated near the mouth of the second branch of the Nile, next the Pelusiac, thence called the Tanitic. ON, OR HELIOPOLIS. 66 The father-in-law of Joseph was high-priest of On, Gen. xli. 45; there rendered, Heliopolis, by the Septuagint version, and noticed also by Herodotus; who says, that "the Heliopolitans were reckoned the wisest of the Egyptians." This was the city of Moses, according to Berosus; and well accounts for his scriptural character, that "he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Acts vii. 22. Heliopolis was the Greek translation of Beth-shemesh, "the house, or city of the Sun," as it was called by Jeremiah, “ Bethshemesh, in the land of Egypt" (xliii. 13.), to distinguish it from another Beth-shemesh, in the land of Canaan. It was nicknamed Beth Aven, "the house of vanity," or idolatry, by the Jews, Ezek. xxx. 17. from Bethel, where Jeroboam erected one of the golden calves; thence called Beth-aven, Hos. x. 5. Aun, or On, and Aven, being only different pronunciations of the same Hebrew word, N, according as Vau, the middle letter, was sounded as a vowel, O or U, or as a consonant V. This city was probably near the royal city Zoan, and only fifteen stadia from the sea, according to Herodotus. RAMESES. Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, was informed by the Egyptian Jews, that this was the same as Heliopolis; but Niebuhr thinks that Rameses lay to the north-west of it, where there is a heap of ruins, about four leagues from Kahira, or Cairo, in the way to Suez, called Tel el Jhud, or Tourbet el Jhúd. Descript. de l'Arabie, p. 351. Rameses was in the land of Goshen, called also "the land of Rameses." Gen. xlvii. 11. SIN, OR PELUSIUM. Sin, in Arabic, signifies "mud," and was therefore the same as Pelusium, from nλoç, "mud." Ezekiel styles Sin," the strength of Egypt," (xxx. 15.) and Suidas, "the key of Egypt," or its strong barrier on the side of Syria and Arabia. Near it, southwards, was PIBESETH, OR BUBASTUS. Mentioned in the neighbourhood of On, or Aven, by Ezekiel (xxx. 17.) which was the Bubastus of the Greeks; whence the eastern branch of the Nile was indiscriminately called the Bubastic, or the Pelusiac. TAHAHPANES, TAHPANES, OR HANES, Was the same as Daphne Pelusiaca, noticed by Herodotus. Here the prophet Jeremiah resided in his exile, (xliii. 8.) Isaiah abridged it to Hanes, (xxx. 4.) MIGDOL. This word signifies "a tower," and was a frontier town of Lower Egypt, towards the Red Sea, between which and that sea the Israelites encamped, Exod. xiv. 1. It is there rendered by the Septuagint Magdolus: and there also Herodotus represents Nekus, or Pharaoh Necho, as gaining a great victory over the Jews, when Josiah was killed; mistaking Magdolus for Megiddo. Jeremiah represents it as belonging to Egypt Proper, (xlvi. 14.) and in the neighbourhood of Tahpanes, or Daphne. The itinerary of Antoninus reckons it a little to the south of the Delta, about twelve miles from Pelusium. NOPH, MENOPH, OR MEMPHIS. This great city lay somewhat above the vertex of the Delta, or parting of the channels of the Nile, upon quitting Upper Egypt. It is called by the Arabs at the present day, Menoph, whence Memphis, which is the Septuagint rendering of Noph, in Jer. xlvi. 14. and elsewhere. The founder of Memphis, according to Herodotus, was Menes, the first king of Egypt, who turned the channel of the river, and built the city in the ancient bed, where the streight between the Arabian and Libyan mountains is narrowest. B. ii. It was probably, therefore, the most ancient city of Lower Egypt, and older than Zoan, or Tanis; which probably was not recovered from the sea till a good while after. Herodotus thought that the valley above Memphis, where it widens, was once a bay of the sea, but was gradually raised by the alluvions of the Nile; which also, in his opinion, formed the Delta. And this tends strongly to confirm the opinion, that the Mediterranean was once much higher than at present, and that it was lowered by the disruption of the streights of Gibraltar. The learned Doctor Shaw, in his Geographical Observations on Egypt, p. 341, combats the opinion of Bochart, that Zoan was the residence of Pharaoh, during the plagues of Egypt, from the local circumstance of “ a strong west wind blowing the locusts into the Red Sea ;" (Exod. x. 19.) which, says he, agrees better to the site of Memphis, which lay westward of the Red Sea; whereas a westerly wind from Zoan would blow them into the Mediterranean, or else into the land of the Philistines. But the original, Ruah Yam, is "a sea wind," or a wind blowing from the Mediterranean, and was therefore rather a northerly wind, which would answer much better to Zoan, near the sea, than to Memphis, inland; and was also better adapted to drive the locusts along the Red Sea rather lengthwise than across it, and so more completely immerge them therein. But why might not both have been royal cities, even allowing Memphis to have been the capital? Pharaoh had cattle in the land of Goshen, (Gen. xlvii. 6.) which was in the neighbourhood of Zoan; and "the princes of Zoan," and "the princes of Noph," are both classed together as "fools" or idolaters. Isa. xix. 13. Zoan perhaps might have been a pleasanter winter residence when the river was low, which was the season in which the plagues were inflicted. Memphis stood on the west side of the river, and opposite to Old Cairo. New Cairo, or Grand Cairo, lies near the Old, to the south, at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands, in a worse situation, being farther from the river, and exposed to more sultry heat. Cairo is a corruption of Kahira, signifying in Arabic," the city," by way of eminence. No, No-AMMON, DIOSPOLIS, or Thebes. This was the capital city of Upper Egypt, and was probably the most ancient of all, built by the first settlers, Misraim and his family; whence Egypt, in general, is styled the land of Misraim," in the original Scripture, though usually rendered, "the land of Egypt." Its Egyptian name was No, (Ezek. xxx. 14.) to which was added Amon, or Amoun, a title of Jove among the Egyptians, according to Herodotus. Whence NN should not be rendered, “the multitude of No," (Jer. xlvi. 25.) but "Amon [the god] of No;" and which, accordingly, is rendered Diospolis, "the city of Jove," by the Septuagint version of Ezek. xxx. 15. It is reversed, ON ND ["the god] of No, Amon, (Nahum iii. 8.) and then variously rendered by the Septuagint," the portion of Ammon." It has been mistakenly supposed that this term denoted Ham, the youngest son of Noah, and the father of Misraim. Its real signification is "Truth," or " Veracity," whence THE LORD is styled, Æl Amunah, “God of Truth." Deut. xxxii. 4. According to Plato, "the secret and invisible creative power supreme, among the Egyptians, was called Ammon;" and Plutarch agrees, that it signified "hidden." See Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 339. And this also was an epithet of the true God: "Why askest thou my name, seeing it is secret?" Judg. xiii. 18. And this perfectly accords with the famous inscription on the temple of Neith, or "Wisdom," at Sais, in the Lower Egypt, recorded by Plutarch. See Cudworth, p. 341. Εγω ειμι Παν το γεγονός και ον και εσόμενον" Αγνωστος Θεος, Hence perhaps the meaning of the ancient aphorism may best be explained, " Truth lies hid in a well;" as primarily relating to the incomprehensible nature of the Supreme Being, “THE ONLY TRUE GOD," (John xvii. 3.) whom the Egyptians styled Σκοτος αγνωστον, EKоTOÇ ауvwσTOV, "darkness unknowable," and the Athenians, a Saite colony, Ayvwσтos Osos, "THE UNKNOWABLE GOD." Acts xvii. 23. Its other Grecian name, Thebes, was probably derived from л, Thebeh, "an ark," like Noah's (Gen. vi. 14.) the memory of which would naturally be preserved by the first settlers after the deluge, in all parts of the earth; and accordingly we find Thebets (y) in Canaan, called Thebez, (Judg. ix. 50.) Thebes in Boeotia, and Thibet in Eastern Asia, all from the same root. And Bruce observes, that "the figure of the temples in Thebes do not seem to be far removed from the idea given us of the ark." Vol. II. p. 31. There he found the ruins of four prodigious temples, all of them in appearance more ancient, but neither so entire nor so magnificent as those of Dendera, covered with hieroglyphics. Vol. I. p. 124. SYENE. This was the most southern city of the Thebais, bordering on Nubia. The prophet Ezekiel describes the whole extent of Egypt from north to south," from Migdol to Syene, even to the borders of Cush." Ezek. xxix. 10; xxx. 6. Our English Bible incorrectly renders Migdol," tower," instead of the town near the Red Sea, noticed before, and also by Jer. xliv. 1; xlvi. 14. The affix 7, in D, is local " to Syene." CUSH, or ETHIOPIA, Usually rendered Ethiopia in our English Bible, has a very extensive signification. It comprehends all the southern and eastern borders of Egypt. In the foregoing passage of Ezekiel, it plainly denotes African Ethiopia, or Nubia and Abyssinia; and in many other passages: Isa. xviii. 1; xx. 3; Ezek. xxx. 5, &c. But in others it must signify Asiatic Ethiopia, or Arabia, as in the description of the garden of Eden, Gen. ii. 13. The wife of Moses was contemptuously styled a " Cushite," or Ethiopian of Arabia. Numb. xii. 1. And where," Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya," are recited in order, the second must denote Arabia. Ezek. xxxviii. 5. Herodotus, in his curious catalogue of the various nations composing the army of Xerxes, distinguishes the long-haired Eastern or Asiatic Ethiopians from the woolly-headed Western or African; B. vii. Both being descendants of Cush, a roving and enterprizing race, who gradually extended their settlements from Chusistan," the land of Cush," or Susiana, on the coasts of the Persian gulph, through Arabia, to the Red Sea; and thence crossed over to Africa, and occupied its eastern coast, and gradually penetrated into the interior of Abyssinia. THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. These stupendous monuments of ancient grandeur and ancient tyranny, appear to be of the remotest antiquity. Herodotus, who visited Egypt about B.C. 448, and Diodorus afterwards, about B.C. 60, found various and contradictory reports in circulation |