EGYPT; the Brook, or River of Egypt. The Scripture frequently mentions the Brook or River of Egypt, as the southern limits of the Land of Promise, on the side of Egypt. For example; God says to Abraham, Gen. xv. 18. 2 Chron. vii. 8.Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. And in another place, Solomon convened a general Assembly of all his people at the dedication of the Temple, from the entring in of Hamath, unto the river of Egypt. Lastly, Moses, describing the southern boundaries Numb. xxxiv. 5.of the promised Land, places them from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings of it, says he, shall be at the sea, the Mediterratean. See the same thing, Joshua xv. 4.
The subject of our present enquiry is to know what this river of Egypt is. Several 1 Sam. xxx. 10. Josh. xiii. 3. Amos vi. 14.have taken it to be the brook Besor, otherwise the brook of the wilderness, situated between Gaza and Rhinocorura. But we do not in the least question but that it was the Nile1, the only river that flows through Egypt. Joshua visibly describes it by the name of Sichor, which is the true name of the Nile; as if it were said, the muddy river, because the waters of this river are frequently thick and muddy. Amos takes notice of it by the name of the River of the wilderness; because the most eastern arm of the Nile, and the nearest to the Land of Canaan, was near Arabia, or the wilderness, called in Hebrew, Araba, and watered the canton, by the Egyptians called Arabian. The Hebrew word Nahal, translated brook, signifies likewise a river.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. The Author’s con- jecture seems to be well grounded, and the Nile might be called absolutely in the Scripture, The River of Egypt; in consideration of its great length, (for it runs about nine hundred German miles) or of the things that it produces; or the almost miraculous flowing and ebbing of it. ↩