107 Ch. xxxii. 17, following the LXX. reading.
108 Migdol was on the north‐east border of Egypt, twelve miles south of Pelusium (Sin), at the mouth of the eastern arm of the Nile. Syene is the modern Assouan, at the first cataract of the Nile, and has always been the boundary between Egypt proper and Ethiopia.
109 Pathros is the name of Upper Egypt, the narrow valley of the Nile above the Delta. In the Egyptian tradition it was regarded as the original home of the nation and the seat of the oldest dynasties. Whether Ezekiel means that the Egyptians shall recover only Pathros, while the Delta is allowed to remain uncultivated, is a question that must be left undecided.
110 Hebrew, “Cush, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed multitude, and Chub, and the sons of the land of the covenant.” Cornill reads, “Cush, and Put, and Lud, and Lub, and all Arabia, and the sons of Crete.” The emendations are partly based on somewhat intricate reasoning from the text of the Greek and Ethiopic versions; but they have the advantage of yielding a series of proper names, as the context seems to demand. Put and Lud are tribes lying to the west of Egypt, and so also is Lub, which may be safely substituted for the otherwise unknown Chub of the Hebrew text.
111 Reading אלים, “strong ones,” instead of אלילים, “not‐gods,” as in the LXX. The latter term is common in Isaiah, but does not occur elsewhere in Ezekiel, although he had constant occasion to use it.
112 The cities are not mentioned in any geographical order. Memphis (Noph) and Thebes (No) are the ancient and populous capitals of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively; Tanis (Zoan) was the city of the Hyksos, and subsequently a royal seat; Pelusium (Sin), “the bulwark of Egypt,” and Daphne (Tahpanhes) guarded the approach to the Delta from the East; Heliopolis (On, wrongly pointed Aven) was the famous centre of Egyptian wisdom, and the chief seat of the worship of the sun‐god Ra; and Bubastis (Pi‐beseth), besides being a celebrated religious centre, was one of the possessions of the Egyptian military caste.
113 It is only fair to say that the construction “a T’asshur, a cedar,” or, still more, “a T’asshur of a cedar,” is somewhat harsh. It is not unlikely that the word “cedar” may have been added after the reading “Assyrian” had been established, in order to complete the sense.
114 See Smend on the passage. Dr. Davidson, however, doubts the possibility of this: see his commentary.
115 This use of the word “uncircumcised” is peculiar. The idea seems to be that circumcision, among nations which like the Israelites practised the rite, was an indispensable mark of membership in the community; and those who lacked this mark were treated as social outcasts, not entitled to honourable sepulture. Hence the word could be used, as here, in the sense of unhallowed.
116 Cf. Isa. xiv. 18‐20: “All of the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast forth away from thy sepulchre, like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden underfoot. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial,” etc.
117 The text of these verses (19‐21) is in some confusion. The above is a translation of the reading proposed by Cornill, who in the main follows the LXX.
118 LXX. מעולם for מערלם = “of the uncircumcised.”
119 “Shields,” a conjecture of Cornill, seems to be demanded by the parallelism.
120 Jer. xliii. 8‐13; xliv. 12‐14, 27‐30; xlvi. 13‐26.
121 _Ant._, X. ix. 7.
122 _Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache_, 1878, pp. 2 ff. and pp. 87 ff.