Sihor

Sihor — preserved in UPDV as the Shihor — names a river or watercourse on the southwestern boundary of the land, associated with Egypt and in some texts with the Nile.

A boundary watercourse before Egypt

The conquest summary marks the Shihor as the southern limit of unconquered territory: "from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, [which] is reckoned to the Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim" (Josh 13:3). The same southern terminus marks the muster David draws together to bring up the ark: "So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor [the brook] of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim" (1 Chr 13:5).

A river identified with the Nile

Two prophetic oracles place the Shihor in apposition with the Nile and with Egyptian commerce. Tyre's lament names her trade in Egyptian grain: "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). Jeremiah's rebuke of Judah's foreign-policy thirsts pairs the Shihor with the Euphrates as the two great rival waters: "And now 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).