Nile. The Egyptian name of the river, according to Diodorus, was Okeames, from Okema, or Okem, signifying "black," whence also it was styled by the Hindus Cali," all names of the same import.'

66

Thus, the name given in Scripture to the bounding river of Israel's inheritance on the side of Egypt, is similar in sound and in significancy to Sihr, the Ethiopian name of the Nile; and is precisely of the same import with the names which it bears in other languages. The name is specially appropriate to the Nile, loaded as it is with the dark loam of Abyssinia and Upper Egypt, and flowing for hundreds of miles through its own dark deposits, with which, as in the days of Virgil, and in earlier times, it fertilizes the land in annual overflow.

Viridem Egyptum nigra fœcundat arena.

Its dark and muddy waters, though sweet to the taste, need first to be filtered, and leave a large dark sediment. The name of Sihor is most appropriate to the Nile; but, having passed by both, the writer may remark, that it would but ill apply to a river of Rhinocorura,-were there a river there;-for the sandy hills around it, and boundless sandy plains joining the desert, might so filter any stream, or purify even the Nile itself, as to rob it of all title to this scriptural name.

The Nile, forming emphatically, and it may well be said, exclusively, "the river of Egypt;" the name by which it is now universally known, being most certainly, on high authority, derived from the very word which is translated in our own version the river or stream of Egypt; the eastern branch of the Nile having been the boundary of that country, according to Strabo, who is second, in accuracy at least, to none of the ancient geo

1 Shaw's Trav. ibid. p. 31. Hales's Chronology, vol. i. pp. 413, 414.

graphers; and its dark waters having given it the name which it bears in scripture, in exact analogy to other appellations by which it was known in their own tongue to various heathen nations-strong and conclusive proof may hence arise that the river of Egypt "could be none other than the Nile." The fact, too, that "none of the old geographers, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, Ptolemy, &c. notice any stream or torrent at Rhinocorura," and no river, or in summer at least, not even the smallest streamlet now existing there, it is left without an actual competitor. And yet the proofs and authorities are not exhausted, that the river of Egypt is the Nile, even as assuredly as the Nile is the river of Egypt.

That the Sihor, as Gesenius states,' is "necessarily" the Nile, is farther evident from other passages of Scripture. In describing the commerce of Tyre, the mart of nations, Isaiah records, in terms applicable to the Nile alone, that," by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river (or as translated in the Vulgate, the Nile,) is her revenues." That river is alike pointedly referred to by Jeremiah, as the Lord did plead with Israel concerning the judgments brought on them for their iniquities. "Is Israel a home-born slave?-The children of Noph (Memphis, on the banks of the Nile,) and Tahaphanes have broken the crown of thy head. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river." Associated as Egypt thus repeatedly is with its river, or the Sihor; and Assyria, with its river, or the Euphrates, there seems no room for doubt, that as the Euphrates is the river of Assyria, so the Nile is the river of Egypt. The same identical word is descriptive of them both

1 Apud vocem.

2 Isa. xxiii. 3.

3 Jer. ii. 14-18.

in the original covenant, as the promise was made to Abraham, Gen. xv. 18. The word translated river is not, as in other passages, Nahal, but Nehar, or NeharMitzraim, the river of Egypt; even as in the same passage Nehar Phraat is the river Euphrates. The same word, too, in the plural number, is applied undoubtedly to the separate branches of the Nile, (forming rivers, though divided,) in a passage that cannot possibly apply to any other river, Exod. vii. 19:-" And the Lord spake unto Moses, say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thy hand with thy rod, over the streams, over the rivers, (neharim), and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt."

It may here be remarked, though anticipating another branch of the subject, that the boundaries of Israel thus approach as closely on the one side to Egypt, as to Assyria on the other, as if preparation had thus been made from the beginning for the completion of the farther promise, that the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians, when these nations shall be joined, though in subserviency, to Israel, "whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."1

"The river of Egypt," says Dr Hales, "which is contrasted with the river Euphrates, must also be a 'great river,' and a marked boundary about which there could be no dispute; and this was no other than the Nile, whose eastern or Pelusian branch was reckoned the boundary of Egypt."

It may be presumed that the other boundaries, as set by a divine hand, and engrossed in the covenant, are also so marked, that ultimately, whatever discrepancy of opinion may have heretofore existed, there shall be no

Isa. xix. 23-25.

2 Hales' Chron. vol. i. p. 413.

doubt or dispute concerning them, on any side. Looking to the scriptural definition of the borders, which alone can prescribe the extent of the promised inheritance, ample proof, if the author errs not, may be adduced to show that the heritage of Jacob, however vast its range, is everywhere encompassed by marked unquestionable bounds.

In order to this proof, and to clear our way to attain it, it is needful to protest in every instance against the idea that the fraction of the land occupied by the Israelites of old, comprehends the full limits of the everlasting possession' of a people whom the Lord will bless in the full and final completion of all his promises.

SECTION III.

THE WEST AND NORTH BORDERS.

The WESTERN BORDER is as defined as are the shores of the Mediterranean from the river of Egypt to the north side of the promised land. In the definition of the borders of the tribes who had not received their portion on the east side of the Jordan, it is said, "As for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border; this shall be your west border." It thus extends along the Mediterranean shore, from the river of Egypt to the entrance into Hamath, which both rank as borders in the same chapter. In defining the general boundary of all the tribes, when they shall all finally inherit the land, Ezekiel, speaking by the same Spirit, says, "The west side also shall be the great sea, from

1 Num. xxxiv. 6.

the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side." "The border of the land toward the north side is from the great sea." From the border-on the river of Egypt, as previously stated, which formed itthe western border extends till its termination, along the shores of the Mediterranean, and thus leaves no place on its coast, from south to north, in all the intermediate distance, that does not pertain to Israel.

The definitions of the NORTH BORDER, which fixes the termination of the western, demand special regard. "This shall be your north border. From the great sea ye shall point out unto you mount Hor; from mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad; and the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan; this shall be your north border: and ye shall point out your east border from Hazar-enan to Shephan; and the coast shall go down from Shephan to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend," &c.3 "This shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad, Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. And the border from the east shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side." "From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath: for these are his

Ezek. xlvii. 20.

3 Num. xxxiv. 7-11.

2 Ibid. 15. Num. xxxiv. 7–11.

4 Ezek. xlvii. 15-17.