Egypt

Egypt is the great southern land of the patriarchal narratives, the house of bondage from which Israel is delivered, the persistent temptation of the kings of Judah, and the named target of the longest single block of foreign-nation oracles in the prophets. Its river is called by name (the Nile) and by code (Shihor, the River, Rahab); its land is called by name (Egypt) and by ancestry (Mizraim, the land of Ham). The UPDV traces the topic from the table of nations through Abraham, Joseph, the Exodus, the monarchic alliances and invasions, the prophetic indictments, and on into the Hellenistic Ptolemaic period — closing with the apocalyptic naming of "Sodom and Egypt" as a symbol for the city where the Lord was crucified.

Mizraim's Descent

Egypt enters scripture as a son of Ham. "And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan" (Gen 10:6). From Mizraim come a series of peoples — "Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from where went forth the Philistines), and Caphtorim" (Gen 10:13-14). The poetic books retain this ancestry: Israel "came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham" (Ps 105:23), and the "great things in Egypt" are remembered as "wondrous works in the land of Ham" (Ps 106:21-22). Another archaic name preserves the same nation under a mythic head: "I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among those who know me" (Ps 87:4); "You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain" (Ps 89:10).

Abraham in Egypt

The first named patriarch goes down because of famine. "And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was intense in the land" (Gen 12:10). The land is fertile — Lot lifts up his eyes and sees the Plain of the Jordan, "well watered everywhere, before [the Speech of] Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar" (Gen 13:10). But the sojourn turns dangerous: "the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house" (Gen 12:15). Yahweh intervenes — "[the Speech of] Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife" (Gen 12:17) — and Pharaoh sends Abram out: "And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South" (Gen 13:1). Within Abram's lifetime the next descent is foretold in covenant: "Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them; and they will afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they will serve, I will judge" (Gen 15:13-14). To Isaac later, Yahweh closes the door: "Don't go down into Egypt. Stay in the land which I will tell you of" (Gen 26:2).

Joseph's Rise

Joseph is carried into Egypt as merchandise. A caravan of Ishmaelites is "going to carry it down to Egypt" (Gen 37:25), and Judah persuades his brothers to sell rather than slay; "they brought Joseph into Egypt" (Gen 37:28), and "the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard" (Gen 37:36). The next chapter retells it: "Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down there" (Gen 39:1).

When Pharaoh dreams, "he sent and called for all the sacred scholars of Egypt, and all its wise men: and Pharaoh told them the things he dreamt; but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh" (Gen 41:8). Joseph is fetched from the dungeon; "It is not in me: God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (Gen 41:16). Pharaoh's response inverts the slave's status: "I have set you over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck" (Gen 41:41-42). He is given an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife: "And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him as wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On" (Gen 41:45).

The seven plenty-years end and "the seven years of famine began to come, according to as Joseph had said: and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread" (Gen 41:54). When the people cry to Pharaoh, he answers, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you⁺, do" (Gen 41:55). "And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain" (Gen 41:57). Jacob comes too, sent on by a vision at Beersheba: "I am God, the God of your father: don't be afraid to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation" (Gen 46:3). Egypt's social distance from the Hebrew family is sharp on both sides — "the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is disgusting to the Egyptians" (Gen 43:32) — and Joseph counsels his brothers to identify themselves as cattle-keepers, "for every shepherd is disgusting to the Egyptians" (Gen 46:34), so they may settle in Goshen.

The famine years remake Egypt's economy. "So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was intense on them: and the land became Pharaoh's" (Gen 47:20). Only one class is exempt: "Only the land of the priests he didn't buy: for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them" (Gen 47:22). Joseph fixes a fifth-tax statute "concerning the land of Egypt to this day" (Gen 47:26). The Joseph cycle closes with embalming — Egyptian custom takes Jacob: "Joseph commanded his slaves the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him 70 days" (Gen 50:2-3) — and then Joseph himself: "they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Gen 50:26).

Enslavement and Moses

The shape of the bondage follows directly. "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph" (Ex 1:8). He decrees against Israel's increase: "Therefore they set over them slave masters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Ex 1:11). "And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in bricks" (Ex 1:13-14). The genocidal decree against Hebrew sons attaches to the river: "Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son who is born you⁺ will cast into the river" (Ex 1:22).

Moses is called back from Midian: "Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead who sought your soul" (Ex 4:19). The first Yahweh-vs.-Pharaoh exchange sets the contest: "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his [Speech] to let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh" (Ex 5:1-2). Egypt's own counter-magic appears: "Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and the sacred scholars of Egypt also did in like manner with their witchcraft" (Ex 7:11).

The Plagues and Exodus

The river itself is the first sign. "I will strike with the rod that is in my hand on the waters which are in the river, and they will be turned to blood" (Ex 7:17). The poet of Asaph rehearses the sequence: "How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan, and turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts ... And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham" (Ps 78:43-51).

The climax comes at midnight: "[the Speech of] Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon ... there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Ex 12:29-30). Pharaoh sends the people out, and the Egyptians press them: "the Egyptians were urgent on the people, to send them out of the land in a hurry; for they said, We are all dead men" (Ex 12:33). "Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians ... And they despoiled the Egyptians" (Ex 12:36). The Psalter sums it: "He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. And he brought them forth with silver and gold; and there was not one feeble person among his tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed; for the fear of them had fallen on them" (Ps 105:36-38).

Pharaoh repents the release and pursues: "the heart of Pharaoh and of his slaves was changed toward the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us? ... and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them" (Ex 14:5-7). The same mass of chariotry is summarized in Isaiah's later retrospect: he "brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they will not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick)" (Isa 43:17). Yahweh divides the sea: "Yahweh caused the sea to go [back] by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided" (Ex 14:21). The Egyptians pursue into the breach; "Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea ... not so much as one of them remained" (Ex 14:27-28). 1 Maccabees keeps the memory in liturgical shape: "Remember in what manner our fathers were saved in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them with an army" (1 Mac 4:9). The Psalter qualifies the deliverance with the rebellion that nearly aborted it: "Our fathers did not understand your wonders in Egypt; they did not remember the multitude of your loving-kindnesses, but rebelled against [your Speech] at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake" (Ps 106:7-8).

The wilderness later remembers Egypt's table even as it accuses Yahweh: "We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic" (Num 11:5). Egypt is also the land of foot-irrigation, contrasted with the rain-fed land Israel is going to possess: "the land, where you go in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from where you⁺ came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs" (Deut 11:10). Even the law that bars Ammonite and Moabite from the assembly tempers itself toward Egypt: "you will not be disgusted by an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. The sons of the third generation who are born to them will enter into the assembly of Yahweh" (Deut 23:7-8).

Egypt in the Monarchic Era

Egyptian wisdom is the standard against which Solomon's is measured: "Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt" (1 Ki 4:30). Solomon makes "affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David" (1 Ki 3:1), and runs a horse-and-chariot trade through Egypt: "the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from Kue ... a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty" (1 Ki 10:28-29). Egyptian textiles run through the literature — "I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt" (Pr 7:16); "Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail" (Eze 27:7) — and the river is a byword for revenue: "And on great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations" (Isa 23:3).

The peace breaks under Rehoboam: "Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; and he took away the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house" (1 Ki 14:25-26). It breaks again under Josiah: "Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and King Josiah went against him; and [Pharaoh-necoh] slew him at Megiddo" (2 Ki 23:29). Pharaoh-necoh deposes Jehoahaz, exacts tribute, and "made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim" (2 Ki 23:34). The Egyptian ambition is then stopped when Babylon rises: "the king of Egypt didn't come again anymore out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt" (2 Ki 24:7).

Israel's Recurrent Temptation to Seek Egypt

The prophets read Egypt as a permanent moral test for Judah. Hosea's verdict on the Northern Kingdom is bare: "now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins; they will return to Egypt" (Hos 8:13). Jeremiah turns the rhetorical question back: "what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?" (Jer 2:18). Isaiah pronounces a double woe — first on the embassy: "Woe to the rebellious sons ... who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!" (Isa 30:1-2) — and then on the army-relying alliance: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but don't rely on the [Speech] of the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!" (Isa 31:1). The theological diagnosis is compact: "Now Egypt is man, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit" (Isa 31:3). Sennacherib's herald uses the same image to mock Hezekiah: "Look, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him" (Isa 36:6). Ezekiel applies the verdict to Zedekiah: "he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? ... Neither will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war" (Eze 17:15-17). Ezekiel reads even Israel's idolatry back to its Egyptian origin: "I said to them, Cast⁺ away every man the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Yahweh your⁺ God. But they rebelled against [my Speech]" (Eze 20:7-8).

Prophetic Oracles Against Egypt

Egypt occupies a full scroll-section in the writing prophets. Isaiah opens "The burden of Egypt. Look, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence" (Isa 19:1). Civil war and counsel-failure follow: "I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians ... they will seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to the spiritists, and to the wizards" (Isa 19:2-3). The Nile dries up: "the waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. And the rivers will become foul; the streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up; the reeds and flags will wither away. The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry" (Isa 19:5-7) — and the fishers, weavers, and flax-workers collapse with it (Isa 19:8-10). The same drying recurs in eschatological frame: "Yahweh will completely destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams" (Isa 11:15). Isaiah enacts the captivity bodily, walking three years naked and barefoot: "the king of Assyria [will] lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt" (Isa 20:4). And the labor reverses: "The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you" (Isa 45:14).

Jeremiah's oracle is dated to Carchemish: "Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck" (Jer 46:2). The Nile flood is itself the figure of Egypt's hubris: "Who is this that rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers? Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth" (Jer 46:7-8). Amos uses the same image of the Nile-flood for Yahweh's own judging hand against the land: "it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt" (Amos 8:8); "it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt" (Amos 9:5). Jeremiah pronounces no healing for the wound: "Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain you use many medicines; there is no healing for you" (Jer 46:11). The verdict on Egypt's gods is named: "Look, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings" (Jer 46:25). Jeremiah ranks Egypt with Judah and Edom under judgment "of the uncircumcised in heart" (Jer 9:25-26). His Tahpanhes sign-act buries stones beneath the brickwork at Pharaoh's entry: "Look, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my slave, and I will set his throne on these stones that I have hid ... And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt" (Jer 43:10-12). Pharaoh-Hophra is named: "Look, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his soul" (Jer 44:30). Jerusalem's hopeful glance toward Egypt for relief from the Chaldean siege gets no quarter: "Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you⁺, will return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city" (Jer 37:7-8).

Ezekiel's four-chapter block addresses Pharaoh as the Nile-crocodile: "Look, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the crocodile that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself. And I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales" (Eze 29:3-4). The land is to be desolate "from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia" (Eze 29:10) for forty years (Eze 29:11). After the forty years, restoration — but to a base kingdom: "I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered ... they will be there a base kingdom. It will be the basest of the kingdoms; neither will it anymore lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they will no more rule over the nations" (Eze 29:13-15). The reason for that diminishment is given in the same paragraph: "And it will be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance" (Eze 29:16). Ezekiel sees Pharaoh's military as a broken arm: "I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, look, it has not been bound up, to apply [healing] medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it is strong to hold the sword" (Eze 30:21). The cedar-allegory of Eze 31 likens Egypt to "a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches" (Eze 31:3) about to be felled. The lamentation of Eze 32 returns to the crocodile: "You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet are you as a crocodile in the seas; and you broke forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet ... I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples" (Eze 32:2-3). Zechariah's late oracle closes the line: "all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart" (Zech 10:11).

The Ptolemaic Period

After the prophets, the topic resumes in 1 Maccabees. The Hellenistic frame opens with Alexander: "Alexander the [son] of Philip the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Kittim, overthrew Darius king of the Persians and Medes, and reigned in his place, first over Greece ... And Alexander reigned twelve years, and he died. And his servants took power, every one in his place. And they all put crowns upon themselves after his death" (1 Mac 1:1-9). Out of those crowned servants the Ptolemies of Egypt emerge as a fixed northern-Egypt kingdom over against the Seleucids of Syria. Antiochus enters the scene aiming to reign over both: "the kingdom was established before Antiochus, and he had a mind to reign over the land of Egypt, that he might reign over two kingdoms. And he entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots and elephants, and horsemen, and a great number of ships. And he made war against Ptolemy king of Egypt, but Ptolemy was afraid at his presence, and fled, and many were wounded to death. And they took the strong cities in the land of Egypt: and he took the spoils of the land of Egypt" (1 Mac 1:16-19). The river of Egypt remains the southwestern boundary of the Seleucid administrative reach: "from the river Euphrates even to the river of Egypt" (1 Mac 3:32).

In the next generation Ptolemy VI takes Cleopatra and approaches Ptolemais: "Ptolemy went out of Egypt, with Cleopatra his daughter, and he came to Ptolemais in the hundred and sixty-second year" (1 Mac 10:57). He then turns on his son-in-law Alexander: "the king of Egypt gathered together an army, like the sand that lies on the seashore, and many ships: and he sought to get the kingdom of Alexander by deceit, and join it to his own kingdom. And he went out into Syria with peaceful words ... Now when Ptolemy entered into the cities, he put garrisons of soldiers in every city" (1 Mac 11:1-3). The ambition crests in a brief double-crown: "Ptolemy entered into Antioch, and set two crowns on his head, that of Egypt, and that of Asia" (1 Mac 11:13). And the Roman correspondence at the end of the book preserves the diplomatic register: "Lucius, the consul of the Romans, to King Ptolemy: Greetings" (1 Mac 15:16).

The Eschatological Inclusion

The Isaianic burden does not end where it began. After the dirge over the dried-up Nile and the broken counsel comes a sevenfold "in that day" sequence that turns the topic inside out. "In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called The City of the Sun. In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to Yahweh ... they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior, and a defender, and he will deliver them" (Isa 19:18-20). The pattern of plague-and-healing is held over: "Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing; and they will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated of them, and will heal them" (Isa 19:22). Egypt and Assyria are joined with Israel under one blessing: "In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for Yahweh of hosts has blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance" (Isa 19:23-25).

The Apocalypse holds the older valence in reserve as a typological name: "their dead bodies [lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Rev 11:8). The same nation that becomes "Egypt my people" in Isaiah's last "in that day" is also, when scripture wants a single word for a city of oppression and death, called Egypt.

The Sirach hymns, drawing on the Nile's older stock of imagery, run the metaphor back into wisdom and providence. The covenant-law "pours forth, as the Nile, instruction, and as Gihon in the days of vintage" (Sir 24:27). And of Yahweh himself: "His blessing overflows as the Nile, and saturates the world as the River" (Sir 39:22). Egypt's river — first turned to blood, then drying up under judgment, then yielding its harvest as Tyre's revenue — finally images, in the wisdom literature, the overflow of divine instruction itself.