MiZUAI.M.
J.iinil of 11am. — By this and similar poetic terms the I'salniist designates K'pjid in Psa. cv, 23 ("Jacob so- journed in the land of Ham," cn T''1X3, here parallel and synonymous with C^'i:i'3,with which compare ver. 27, and cvi, 22, 23), and in Psa. Ixxviii, 51 (where "/Ae tabernacles of Ham" DPI"'^bn5<, is again parallel with D^^ "JC":). What in these passages is the poe/lcal name of Egypt in Hebrew, was among the ICgyjitians them- selves proliably the domestic and usual designation of tlieir countrv- ((iesenius). According to (iesenius, this name of //am ("Coptic C/ienii,'' for winch Lepsius, how- ever, substitutes another word, //em | Mem])h.J or J//iem I Tiiel>aic |) is derived from tlic swarthy complexion of the jieople (what (iesenius calls Coptic Lepsius desig- nates by the now more usual term A/emp/iitic: (iesenius adds On- Sa/iidic | Lepsius's riiehair] form of "our word Kimi [from kern, IjlackJ; but Lepsius denies that the name of Egj^it, //am [CH |,has " any direct connection" ■Willi this word; be substitutes the root Item, or /lem f .MemphiticJ, which is softened into lihem, or hhem, in the sister dialect of Thebes; the meaning of which is to lie /lot [Tattam, /,pr. yKf/>/pl. Lat. p. (;.J3, (;7I J. Chemi, however, and K/ieni, are, no doubt, the constantlv used terms for the name of the country [sec Tattam, p. 155, 5('.ii, and rhlemann. Cupl. dr. el Lex. p. 1.54]), while Lepsius says, "not from the color of its inhabitants, which was red, but from that of its soil, which formed a stron;; ci.ntra.st with the adjacent countries." (Comp. liitus's inXayyatov, ii, 12, and Plutarch's Alyvi:- /taXiara fttXdyyuov ovdav . . . Xij^ia
Hero, rov i
roglyphic language the name occurs as KM. The in- scription of it, as it frequently occurs on the Rosetta stone, is pronounced by ChampoUion, Akerblad, and Spohn, Ckme (Gesen. Tlies. p. -189). The name by which Eg)-pt is commonly called in Hebrew, C;';''n^p (^1^'9 shoidd probably be translated £ffypt in 2 Kings xix, 24 ; Isa. xix, G ; xxxvii, 25 ; and ^Micah vii, 12 ; Gesen. and Fiirst, s. v.), was not used by the Egyptians (Bahr, He- rodot. note, ad I.e.), but by Asiatics it appears to have been much used of the land of the Nile, as is evident from the cmieiform inscriptions. The IMedian form of the name was Mitzariffa ; the Babylonian, Ifizir ; the Assyrian, Jtfuzri. The Arabic name of the present cap-, ital of Egypt is El Mazr, and the country also is Misr (Sir H. Kawlinson, Jour. B. As. Sac. vol xiv, pt. i, p. 18 ; Lepsius, in llerzog, s. v. Egypt). Josephus (Atif. i, 6, 2) renders the Hebrew name of Eg^^pt bv Mserrp?/, and of the people by Mtarpaloi. Whether, however, we re- gard the native name from the father, or the Asiatic fVom the son, they both vouch for the Hamitic character of Egypt, which probably differed from all the other set- tlements of this race in having Ham himself as the act- ual apxnyoQ of the nation, among w^hom also he per- haps Uved and died. This circumstance would afford sufficient reason both why the nation itself shoidd re- gard the father as their 'eponymiis rather than the son, who only succeeded him in the work of settlement, and why, moreover, foreigners with no other interest than simply to cUstinguish one Hamitic colony from another should have preferred for that purpose the name of the son, which woidd both designate this particidar nation, and at the same time distinguish it from such as were Idndred to it.
On the sons of Jlizraim we must be brief, Josephus noticed the different fortune which had attended the names of the sons from that of the grandsons of Ham, es- pecially in the family of Mizraim ; for while "time had not hurt" the former, of the latter he says (Anf. i, C, 2), "we know nothinrj but tlieir names." Jerome (who in these points mostly gives us only the echo of Josephus) says similarly : " Castera; sex gentes ignotte sunt nobis . . . quia usque ad oblivionem pr^eteritorum nominum perv-enere." They both, indeed, except t^vo names from the obscurity which had oppressed the other six, Labim and Philisiim, and give them " a local habitation with their name." What this is we shall notice soon ; mean- Avhile we briefly state such identifications of the others as have occurred to commentators. Josephus, it will Ije observed, renders all these plural Hebrew names by sin- (jular forms. These plurals seem to indicate clans speak- ing their own lanrjuagcs (comp. ver. 20, which surmounts our table), centered around their patriarch, from whom, of course, they derived their r/entile name: thus, Lvdim from Lud: Pathrusim from Pathros, etc. (Feldhoff, p. 94). Lenormant notices the fact of so many nedions emerging from Egypt, and spreading over Africa {L'Asle Occideii/(de, p. 244 (.-for he understands these names to be of i)eoplcs, not individuals ; so Michaelis, Spicikff. p. 254, who quotes Aben-Ezra for the same opinion. Aben- Ezra, however, does not herein represent the general opinion of the Jewish doctors. The relative WC^ . . . "l'i"X misled him; he thought it necessarily implied lo- cidity, and not ajiersonal antecedent. Mendelssohn de- clares him wrong in this view, and refers to Gen. xlix, 24. " It is probable," he adds, " that Ludim and the oth- er names were those of men, who gave their names to their descendants. Such was the opinion of Rashi, etc.," who takes the same view as the old Jewish historian.