The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 138

African, e.nd not the Asie.tio, people of that general. Now Ezekiel, following in the name. In Jer. xlvi. 9 the two ne.tions are footsteps of Jeremiah (eh. xlvi.), specifies the named among the e.uxilie.ries of Egypt. Chaldean king and his people, the terrible Po88ibly the similarity of name may have of the nations (as in eh. xxviii 7; xxxi. 12, led to the term being used also for the et al.), as those who were to execute the Lydian and Ionian forces enlisted by Peam- Divine judgments. metichue I. (Herod., iii. 4); but there seems Ver. 12.-1 will make the rivers dry. The more reason for including these in the f'i1'ef'8 are the Nile-branches of the Delta, mingled people that are next mentioned. and their being dried up points, perhaps, Chub, or Cub (Revised Version), is found literally to a failure in the inundation of here only, and has consequently given occa- the Nile on which its fertility depended; sion to many guesses. Hii.vernick connects figuratively to a like failure of all its sources it with the Kuja, e. district of Media, often of prosperity. named in Egyptian monuments; Michaelis, Ver. 13.-Noph, or, as in Hos. ix. 6, with Kobe on the Ethiopian coast of the Moph, ie a form of the Egyptian M'noph, the Indian Ocean; Maurer, with Cob, a city of Greek Memphis (so in the LXX.), the capi- Mauretania; Gesenius, Ewe.Id, and Bunsen tal of Lower Egypt, the chief centre of the suggest the reading Nub, and identify it worship of Phthah, whom the Greeks iden- with Nubia; Keil and Bmend adopt the tified with Hephrestoe. Hence the special form L'Ub, found in the Lubim of 2 Chron. mention of the idols and images. xvi. 8 and Nab. iii. 9. On the whole, there Ver. 14.-(For l'athro1, see note on eh. are no adequate data for the solution of xxix. 14.) Zoe.n-joined with Noph in Isa. the problem. The men of the land that xix. 11, mentioned in Numb. xiii. 22 e.s older is in league. Here, again, we are in a than Hebron-is the Tanis of the Greeks, region of me.ny conjeotures. (1) Hitzig situated on the Tanitic branch of the Del ta. nnd KJiefoth (following Jerome and the of the Nile. No; or, as in Nah. iij. 8, No LXX., which gives, "the le.nd of my cove- Amon (equivalent to "the abode of Am- nant") take it of Canaan, e.e being the Janel. mon"), the sacred name of the Egyptian iu covenant with Jehovah (Ps. lxxiv. 2, 20; Thebes. Tho LXX. gives Diospolis; the Dan. xi. 28; Acts iii. 25). (2) Hengsten- Vulgate, by a onzious anachronism, Alex- berg, for the Sabeo.ns, as being members of andria. the Judroo-Egyptian confederacy implied in Vera. 15, 16.-Bin. The name eignifies eh. xxiii. 42. (3) Keil, Ewald, and Smend, "mire," like the Greek Peluaium (so the of a people among Jhe allies of Egypt, un- Vulgnte), from 11'7JAO< (Strabo, xvii. p. 802). known to us, but sufficiently designated by The modern name Pherami has the same Ezekiel for hie readers. meaning. The remains of an oltl fortress Ver. 6.-They that uphold Egypt. Tho near the town are still known as Tine/,, words include the allies named in ver. 5; the ''clay" of Do.n: ii. 41. The fortreBS but e.leo embrace the rulers, generals, per- stood on the enstern branch of the Nile, haps the ido~, of Egypt itself. From the surrounded by swamps, and its position tower of Byene. As before, in eh. :u:ix. me.de it, in modern phrase, tho ''key'' of 10, "from Migdol to Syene." Egypt. Suidas and Strabo (ut supTa) Ver. 9.-In the.t day shall messengers, etc. describe it e.s nn obstacle to invaders from The whole po.sse.ge seems nn echo of lea. the East. Ezekiel, in describing it BB xviii. 2. The ships are those that bee.r the "the stf'e11gth of Egypt,'' must have known tidings of the conquest of Lower Egypt to its local characteristics. The multitude of tho upper valley of the Nile. The oarele68 No; in the Hebrew, as in Jer. xlvi. 25, Ethiopians are so named as confiding in Hamon-No. Did the prophet, after the their remoteness from the scene of action. m1mner of Micah i. 10-14, indulge in a 'fltey thought themselves safe, and were piny on the full name of the city as given lulled into 11, fo.lse security (comp. Isa. xxxii. in Nah. iii. 8? The LXX., ne before, gives 9-11 and Zeph. ii. 15, fo1· e. like render- Diospoli8, and the Vulgo.te AlexandTia. ing of the ve1·b ). As in the day of Egypt. Noph shall hove distresses daily. So the As Isaiah (ix. 4) refers to "the day of Mi- Vulge.tc, angusUre qu,otidianm. Hitizig and dinn," so Ezekiel points to the memorable Keil, however, to.ko the words ne "troubles time when like tidings of the judgmeute in the day.time." The city should be that fell on Egypt carried dismay into the attacked, not by night (Ohnt.1. 5), but in hearts of the surrounding nations (Exod. open <lay (compare "the spoiler at noonday" xv. H, 15). of Jer. xv. 8). The LXX. omits the name Vere. 10, 11.-By the hand of Nebuohe.d- of tbo city, ant.I renuers, "waters shall be nezzar. Hitherto (on the assumption that poured out." For Bin the LXX. here gives, eh. xxix. 17-21 stands by itself, and that following a different reading, "Syeue." we are still in the prophetic message of cb. Yer. 17.-The young men of Aven; the nix. 1-16) the predictions have been "Ou" of Gen. xli. 45, the "house of the 142 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH. xxx. 1-26.