PELUSIUM, a City of Egypt, situate at the Mouth of the most Eastern Arm of the Nile, and the nearest to Palestine. Pelusium, otherwise Damietta, was as it were the Key of Egypt, towards Phœnicia and Judæa. Ezekiel1 speaks of it under the Name of Sin, and calls it the Rampart or Strength of Egypt. The Hebrew Word Sin, which signifies Mud, answers very well to the Greek Pelusium, which comes from Pelos, of the same Signification. The Septuagint have read Sais instead of Sin, in this Place of Ezekiel. The Scripture speaks of the Desart of Sin, between Elim and Sinai, Exod. xvi. 1. Numb. xxxiii. 11.
This is the Prophecy that Ezekiel pronounces Ezek. xxx. 13, 14, 15, 16, &c.against Pelusium. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy their Idols, and I will cause their Images to cease out of Noph, and there shall be no more a Prince of the Land of Egypt, and I will put a Fear in the Land of Egypt. And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set Fire in Zoan, and will execute Judgments in No. And I will pour my Fury upon Sin the Strength of Egypt, and will cut off the Multitude of No. And I will set Fire in Egypt, Sin shall have great Pain, &c. ‘Tis thought these Threats had Regard to the Expedition of Ezek. xxix. 18, 19.Nebuchadnezzar against this Country. For the Lord says to Ezekiel; Son of Man, Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon caused his Army to serve a great Service against Tyrus; every Head was made bald, and every Shoulder was peeled, yet had he no Wages, nor his Army, for Tyrus, for the Service that he had served against it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will give the Land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon, and he shall take her Multitude, and take her Spoil, and take her Prey, and it shall be the Wages for his Army. Afterwards the Prophet foretels the Calamities before mentioned. Pelusium by its Situation was as it were the Key, the Rampart, and the Strength of Egypt, It suffered the first Efforts of the King of Babylon, and of the Chaldean Army2.
2 Kings xix. 35.Before Nebuchadnezzar’s Time the City of Pelusium had been already attacked by the Army of Sennecharib King of Assyria. This Prince set upon Sethon, otherwise Sevechus, King of Egypt, and lay down before Pelusium3. Sethon was a Prince devoid of Prudence, and but little capable of Government. He had alienated the Minds of his Soldiers, and found himself forsaken of all those that could defend him. Yet having addressed himself to Vulcan, whose Priest he was, he was bid to advance as far as Pelusium, there to meet Sennecharib, and God would send him Assistance. He therefore put himself at the Head of such People as he could get together, and God sent against Sennecharib’s Army a great Multitude of Rats, which in the Night Time gnawed the Strings of the Bows, and the Thongs of the Bucklers of the Assyrians, by which their Arms became useless to them. This is what the Egyptians relate. But the sacred Books of the Hebrews inform us, that it was an Angel of the Lord, who in one Night put to Death eighty-five Thousand Men of Sennecharib’s Army.
We are assured4, that Cambyses King of Persia, being desirous to make War in Egypt, and resolving to become Master of Pelusium, which was as it were its Rampart, to take it with less Difficulty he devised this Stratagem. In an Assault which he made against the Town, he placed a great Number of Cats, Dogs, Sheep, and such other Animals as the Egyptians held for sacred, in the Front of his Troops. Thus the Soldiers that defended the City, who were altogether or mostly Egyptians, durst not throw their Lances, or shoot any Arrows on that Side, for Fear of wounding any of those Animals. By which Means Cambyses became Master of the Place without any Oppositiona.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages