It was in the time of the decline of the Israelitish kingdom, and during the subsequent existence of that of Judah, that Memphis became important to the He- brews. The Ethiopians of the 2oth dynasty, or their Egyptian vassals of the2.>d and 24th, proljably, and the Saitesof the 26th, certaiuly, nri.lc ^leniphis the political capital of Egypt. Hosea msutious Jlotnplus only with Egj'pt, as the great city, predicting of the Israelitish fu- gitives, "Mizraim shall gather tham up, Noph shall burj' them" (ix, G). Memphis, the city of the vast necropo- lis, where Osiris and Anubis, gods of the dead, threat- ened to overshadow the worship of the local divin- ity, Ptah, could not be more accurately characterized. No other city but Abydos was so mucn occupied with burial, and Abydos was far inferior in the extent of its necropolis. With the same force that personifies Mem- phis as the burier of the unhappy fugitives, the prophet Nahum describes Thebes as walled and fortified by the sea (iii, 8), as the Nile had been called in ancient and modern times, for Thebes alone of the cities of Egypt lay on both sides of the river. See No-Ammon. Isaiah, in the wonderful Burden of Egypt, which has been more marked and literally fulfilled than perhaps any other like portion of Scripture, couples the princes of Zoan (Tanis) with the princes of No])h as evil advisers of Pharaoh and Egypt (xix, 13). Egypt was then weak- ly governed by the last Tanitic king of the 23d dynasty, as ally or vassal of Tirhakah ; and Memphis, as already remarked, was the political capital. In Jeremiah, Noph is spokpn of with " Tahapanes," the frontier stronghold
Daphnfe, as an enemy of Israel (ii, 16). It is difficult to explain the importance here given to "Tahapanes." Was it to warn the Israelites that the first city of Egypt which they should afterwards enter in their forbidden flight was a city of enemies? In his prophecy of the overthrow of Pharaoh-Necho's array, tlie same projihet - warns Migdol, Noph, and " Tahpanhes" of the approach of the invader (xlvi, 14), as if warning the capital and the frontier towns. When Migdol and "Tahpanhes" had fallen, or whatever other strongholds guarded the eastern border, the Delta could not be defended. Wlien Memphis was taken, not only the capital was in the hands of the enemy, but the frontier fort commanding the entrance of the valley of Upper Egypt had fallen. Later he saj-s that "Noph shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant" (ver. 19). And so it is, while many other cities of that day yet flourish— as Hermop- olis Parva and Sebennytus in the Delta, and Lycopolis, Latopolis, and Syene, in Upper Egypt; or still exist as villages, like Chcmmis (I'anopolis), Tentyra, and Her- monthis, in the latter (li\ i^iim— it is doubtful if any vil- lage on the site of Miin|ihi.'^, duce the most populous city of Egypt, even preserves its name. Latest in time, Ezekiel prophesies the coming distress and final over- throw of Memphis. Egypt is to be filled with slain ; the rivers are to be dried and the lands made waste ; idols and false gods are to cease out of Noph ; there is to be "no more a prince of the land of Egypt." So much is general, and refers to an invasion by Nebu- chadnezzar. Noph, as by Hosea, is coupled with Egypt — the capital with the state. Then more particularly Pathros, Zoan, and No are to suifer; Sin and No again; and with more vivid distinctness the distresses of Sin, No, Noph, Aven, Pi-beseth,and " Tehaphnehes" are fore- told, as if the prophet witnessed the advance of fire and sword, each city taken, its garrison and fighting citi- zens, " the young men," slain, and its fair buildings given over to the flames, as the invader marched upon Daph- i\ee, Pelusium, Tanis, Bubastis, and Heliopolis, until ]\k m- phis fell before him, and beyond Memphis Thebes alone offered resistance, and nitt with the like overthrow (xxx, 1-19). Perhaps these vivid images represent, by the force of repetition and their climax-like arrangement, but one series of calamities: perhaps they represent three invasions — that of Nebuchadnezzar, of which we may expect history one day to tell us; that of Camby- ses ; and last, and most ruinous of all, that of Ochus. The minuteness with which the first and more particu- lar prediction as to Memphis has been fulfilled is very noticeable. The images and idols of Noph have disap- peared; when tlie site of almost every other ancient town of Egypt is marked by colossi and statues, but one, and that fallen, with some insignificant neighbors, is found where once stood its greatest citj'-,
YL Liierattij-e.—The cliicf autlmrities on the subject of this article are Lepsius. Jh iiLmiih r aus Aegypttn unci Aethiopien; Brugsch, tud'j/i/jilii.'ickc Inschrifien; Col. Howard Vyse, I'l/rcmids of Gize/i, fol. plates, and 8vo text and plates; Sir J, G, Wilkinson, J/oc/erw Eff'/pt and Thehes, and Ihind-hool- fo EgyiA ; and Mrs. Poole, Eiiff- lishu-oman in E(/ypt, where the topography and descrip- tion of the necropolis and the pyramids are by Mr, Lane. See furtlier, Fourmont, Descrijjt. des Plaines d'lJeliop. et de MemjMs (Par. 1755) ; Niebuhr, Trav. i, 101 ; Du Bois Ayme, in the Bescript. de VEr/ypte, viii, 63 ; Prokcscft, Erimier. ii, 38 sq. ; also Gesenius, Thes. Heb.i). 812; Smith's Diet, of Class. Geogr. s, v. See Noph.