2. Year, TIX^, "!!<% is the same as the ancient Egyp- tian ATUR, AUIJ, and the Coptic Eie?-o or Taro. It is important to notice that the second form of the ancient Egyptian name alone is preserved in the later language, the second radical of the first having been lost, as in the Hebrew form ; so that, on this double evidence, it is probable that this commoner form was in use among the people from early times. Yeiir, in the singular, is used of the Nile alone, excepting in a passage in Daniel (xii, 5, 6, 7), where another river, perhaps the Tigris (comp. X, 4), is intended by it. In the plural, D"^"!!*^, this name is applied to the branches and canals of the
NILE
99
NILE
Nile (Psa. Ixxviii, 44 ; Ezek. xxix, 3 sq. ; xxx, 12), and perhaps the tributaries also, with, in some places, the addition of the names of the countr}-, Mitsraim, Matsor, D"i^:ia ''INt' (Isa. vii, 18, A. V. "rivers of Egypt"), "li:!^ '^^IX'7 (xix, 6, "brooks of defence;" xxxvii, 25, " rivers of the besieged places") ; but it is also used of streams or channels, in a general sense, when no partic- ular ones are indicated (see Isa. xxxiii, 21 ; Job xxviii, 10). It is thus evident that this name specially desig- nates the Nile ; and although properly meaning a river, and even used with that signification, it is probably to be regarded as a proper name when applied to the Egyptian river. The latter inference may perhaps be drawn from the constant mention of the Euphrates as "the river;" but it is to be observed that Shihor, or "the river of Egypt," is used when the Nile and the Euphrates are spoken of together, as if Year could not be well employed for the former, with the ordinary term for river, nakdr, for the latter. See Stheam,
3. " The river of I2gypt," C'l^'HIi'D "1^3, is mentioned with the Euphrates in the promise of the extent of the land to be given to Abraham's posterity, the two lim- its of which were to be " the river of Egypt" and " the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen. xv, 18). See Egypt, Riveu of.
4. " The Nachal of Egypt," D^'^^S ^TO, has gener- ally been understood to mean " the torrent" or " brook of Egypt," and to designate a desert stream at Rhino- corura, now El-'Arish, on the eastern border. Certainly pro usually signifies a stream or torrent, not a river ; and when a river, one of small size, and dependent upon mountain-rain or snow ; but as it is also used for a val- ley, corresponding to the Arabic wdcly, which is in like manner employed in both senses, it may apply like it, in the case of the Guadalquivir, etc., to great rivers. This name has been held by some to signify the Nile, for it occurs in cases parallel with those where Shi- hor is employed (Numb, xxxiv, 5 ; Josh, xv, 4, 47 ; 1 Kings viii, G5; 2 Kings xxiv, 7 ; Isa. xxvii, 12),both designating the easternmost or Pelusiac branch of the river as the border of the Philistine territory, where the Egyptians likewise put the border of their country towards Kanaan or Kanana (Canaan). It remains for us to decide whether the name signify the " brook of Egypt," or whether Nachal be a He- brew form of Nile. On the one side may be urged the improbability that the middle radical should not be found in the Indo-European equivalents, although it is not one of the most permanent letters; on the other, tliat it is improbable that nahar, " river," and nachal, " brook," would be used for the same stream. If the latter be here a proper name, NfiAoc must be supposed to be the same word ; and the meaning of the Greek as well as the Hebrew name would remain doubtful, for we could not then positively decide on an Indo-European signification. The Hebrew word nachal might have been adopted as very similar in sound to an original proper name; and this idea is supported by the forms of various Egyptian words in the Bible, which are susceptible of Hebrew ety- mologies in consequence of a slight change. It must, however, be remembered that there are traces of a Shemitic language, apparently distinct from He- brew, in geographical names in the east of Lower Egypt, probably dating from the Shepherd period ; and therefore we must not, if we take nachal to be here Shemitic, restrict its meaning to that which it bears or could bear in Hebrew. See Bkook; River.
5. "The rivers of Cush," ^313 '^'^fT?, are only mentioned in the extremely difficult prophecy con- tained in Isa. xviii. From the use of the plural, a single stream cannot be meant, and we must suppose " the rivers of Ethiopia" to be the confluents or trib- utaries of the Nile. Gesenius {Lex, s. v. "ili) makes
them the Nile and the Astaboras. Without attempting to explain this propliccy, it is interesting to remark that the expression, " Whose land the rivers have spoiled" (ver, 2, 7), if it apph' to any Ethiopian nation, may re- fer to the ruin of great part of Ethiopia, for a long dis- tance above the First Cataract, in consequence of the fall of the level of the river. This change has been ef- fected through the breaking down of a barrier at that cataract, or at Silsilis, by which the valley has been placed above the reach of the fertilizing annual deposit. But the verb !1NT3 should rather be rendered "have cut up," and refers to the intersection of the alluvial country by the channels of the river. See Cusii.