Mizraim

MIZRAIM, or Mesraim, Son of Ham, and Father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim. Meser or Misor was the Father of the Mizraim, or the Egyptians, and he himself is commonly called Mizraim, although there is a very strong Probability that Mizraim being of the Plural Number, signifies rather the Egyptians themselves, than the Father of this People. The Name Mizraim is also put for the Countrey: Thus it has three Significations, which are perpetually confounded and used promiscuously, being sometimes put for the Land of Egypt, sometimes for him that first peopled Egypt, and sometimes for the Inhabitants themselves. The Word Mizraim is of the Dual Number, and may express both Egypts, the superior and inferior, or the two Parts of this Countrey, as it is divided by the Nile. The City of Cairo the Capital of Egypt, and even Egypt it self, is still to this Day called Mezer by the Arabians. But the Natives Ps. lxxviii. 12. cv. 23. cvi. 22. Mic. vii. 12. Heb.call it Chemi, which is as much as to say, the Land of Cham, or Ham, as it is also sometimes called by the Hebrews. The Prophet Micah gives to Egypt the Name of Mezor; [or Matzor] and the Rabbi Kimchi, followed herein by several learned Commentators, explains by Egypt what is said of the Rivers of Mezor, in the second Book of Kings xix. 24. Isai. xix. 6. Heb.

The City of Memphis, called in Hebrew Moph or Noph, and which for a long Time was the capital City of Egypt, had also the Name of Meser. The Oriental Geographers say, that from the Time of the Conquests of Alexander, it had the Name of Bablion or Babylon, in Memory of the ancient Babylon of Chaldæa; and that at last it had the Name of Cairo. But the Cities of Memphis, Babylon, and Cairo, tho’ not far from one another, and built from the Ruines of each other, are not situate in the same Place. Cairo is to the East of the Nile, and old Memphis to the West. But the Arabians however do not decline to give the Name of Mezer to Cairo.

Egypt, according to the Oriental Geographers¹, is divided into three Parts; South-Egypt, or Said, which is the Thebais, whose Capital was formerly the City of Thebes, now uninhabited. At present it is Asouan, which is the Syene of the Ancients.

The second Part begins at Cairo, and extends towards the North. The Arabians call it Ref, and the ancient Hebrews Rahab. Memor ero Rahab & Babylonis scientium me, Psal. lxxxvi.

The third Part, which the Arabians call Giouf, is properly that which the Ancients call the Delta, which contains all the Countrey inclosed by the Nile, till it empties it self into the Mediterranean Sea.

Some have comprehended under the Name of Egypt, all the Countrey which the Arabians call Belad-al-Tor, the Countrey of Tor, or from the Mountain of Sinai. And it is from thence that in some Oriental Geographers, we find that the Wilderness of the Children of Israel is comprehended within Egypt, though in Strictness it is inclosed within Arabia Petræa.

The ancient Greek Geographers have comprised the Eastern Part of Egypt under the Name of Arabia, which they extend on this Side as far as the Banks of the Nile. It is also manifest, that the Arabians even to this Day make Inroads into, and take Possession of, that whole Part of Egypt which is almost deserted and uncultivated. But this should not hinder us from fixing the Eastern Limits of Egypt at the Red- Sea. See what we have said under the Article EGYPT.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages