after a long siege, he took and destroyed; but was disappointed of the spoil, as hath been ob- . served in the foregoing chapter.

Josephus asserts, that Nebuchadnezzar, having subdued Cœlo Syria, waged war against the Amorites and Moabites; and having conquered them, he invaded Egypt, and slew the king who then reigned, and appointed another. It is indeed highly probable that Apries was dethroned, and Amasis constituted king by Nebuchadnezzar. The name of the king of Egypt at that time, according to Jeremiah, was Pharaoh Hophra; and he can be no other than the Apries of Herodotus. Ezekiel represents him as an arrogant, impious prince, xxix. 3. as the great dragon or crocodile that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said: "My river is my own, and I have made it for myself;" and agreeably hereto Herodotus informs us, that Apries proudly and wickedly boasted of having established his kingdom so surely, that it was not in the power of any god to dispossess him of it.

However, Jeremiah foretold that he should be taken, and slain by his enemies, xliv. 30: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold! I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek

his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, that sought his life;" and accordingly Apries was taken, and strangled by Amasis, who was, by Nebuchadrezzar, called also Nebuchadnezzar, established king in his room.

Ezekiel foretold that the country should be desolate forty years, and the people carried cap- tives into other countries, xxix. 12: "I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities, among the cities that are laid waste, shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries." It is likely that this, as well as the other conquered countries, did not shake off the Babylonian yoke till the time of Cyrus, which was about forty years after the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. But we are assured by Berosus, that Nebuchadnezzar took captives in Egypt, and carried them to Babylon; and from Megasthenes we learn, that he transplanted and settled others in Pontus. So true it is that they were scattered among the nations, and dispersed through the countries, and might, upon the dissolution of the Babylonian empire, return to their native country.

Not long after this was another memorable revolution; and the country was invaded and subdued by Cambyses and the Persians, which is the main subject of the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah. The prophet begins with declaring, that the conquest of Egypt should be swift and sudden, and that the idols of Egypt should be destroyed, verse 1: "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it!".

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The same thing is foretold of Nebuchadrezzar by Jeremiah: "And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives; he shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire."

Again, Ezekiel xxx. 13, says: "Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of Noph, or Memphis."

With relation to Cambyses and the Persians, we have ample proof of what hath been premised. Cambyses treated the gods of the Egyptians with marvellous contempt, laughed at the people, and

chastised the priests for worshipping such deities. He slew Apis, or the sacred Ox, which the Egyptians worshipped, with his own hands; and burnt and demolished their other idols and temples. Ochus too, who was another king of Persia, and subdued the Egyptians again after they had revolted, plundered their temples, and caused Apis to be slain, and served up in a banquet for him and his friends.

The prophet foretells, that they would be miserably distracted with civil wars, Isaiah xix. verse 2: "And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; eity against city, and kingdom against kingdom;" or, as the seventy translate it, province against province; Egypt being divided into prefectures, or provinces.

Vitringa applies this to the anarchy that preceded, and the civil wars that succeeded the reign of the twelve kings, wherein the genius of Psamiticus prevailed over the rest. But it may

be applied to the civil wars between Apries and Amasis, and to those between Tachos, Nectanebus, and the Mendesian, a little before the country was finally subdued by Ochus.

It is no wonder that in such distractions and

distresses as these, the Egyptians, being naturally a cowardly people, should be destitute of counsel and that "the spirit of Egypt should fail in the midst thereof," as the prophet foretells, verse 3; and that, being also a very superstitious people," they should seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that had familiar spirits, and to the wizards." But their divination was all in vain; they were to be subdued and oppressed by cruel lords and tyrants, verse 4: " And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them."

This may with the greatest justice and propriety be applied to the Persians, and especially to Cambyses and Ochus, one of whom put the yoke upon the neck of the gyptians, and the other riveted it there; and both are branded in history, for cruel tyrants, and monsters of men; there was a mixture of barbarity and madness in all the behaviour of Cambyses.

Ochus was the most cruel and the worst of all the kings of Persia, and was so destructive and oppressive to Egypt in particular, that his favourite Eunuch Bagoas, who was an Egyptian, in revenge of his injured country, poisoned him. No other allegation is wanting to prove, that the Persian yoke was galling and intolerable to the