In this interval I place a few circumstances related in Holy Scripture. A. M. 2991. Ant. J. C. 1013. PHARAOH, king of Egypt, gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon king of Israel; who received her in that part of Jerusalem called the city of David, till he had built her a palace. A. M. 3026. Ant. J. C. 978. SESACH or Shishak, otherwise called Sesonchis. It was to him that Jeroboam fled, to avoid the wrath of Solomon, who intended to kill him. He abode in Egypt till Solomon's death, and then returned to Jerusalem; when, putting himself at the head of the rebels, he won from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, ten tribes, over whom he. declared himself king. Ant. J. C. 971. This Sesach, in the fifth year of the reign of A. M. 3033. Rehoboam, marched against Jerusalem, because the Jews had transgressed against the Lord. He came with twelve hundred chariots of war, and sixty thousand horse. He had brought numberless multitudes of people, who were all Libyans, Troglodytes, and Ethiopians." He made himself master of all the strongest cities of Judah, and advanced as far as Jerusalem. Then the king and the princes of Israel having humbled themselves, and implored the protection of the God of Israel; God told them, by his prophet Shemaiah, that, because they humbled themselves, he would not utterly destroy them as they had deserved; but that they should be the servants of Sesach: in order that they might know the difference of his service and the service of the kingdoms of the country. Sesach retired from Jerusalem, after having plundered the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king's house; he carried off every thing with him, and even also the 300 shields of gold which Solomon had made. X A. M. 3063. ZERAH, king of Ethiopia, and doubtless of Ant. J. C. 941. Egypt at the same time, made war upon Asa king of Judah. His army consisted of a million of men, and three hundred chariots of war. Asa marched against him, and drawing up his army in order of battle, in full reliance on the God whom he served: Lord, says he, it is nothing for thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude; O Lord, thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee. A prayer offered up with such strong faith was heard. God struck the Ethiopians with r 1 Kings in. 1. 1 Kings xi. 40. and xii. t 2 Chron. xii. 1-9. " The English version of the Bible says, The Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. Or, of the kingdoms of the earth. y 2 Chron. xiv. 9-13. terror; they fled, and all were irrevocably defeated, being destroyed before the Lord, and before his host. ANYSIS. He was blind," and under his reign SABACHUS, king of Ethiopia, being encouraged by an oracle, entered Egypt with a numerous army, and possessed himself of it. He reigned with great clemency and justice. Instead of putting to death such criminals as had been sentenced to die by the judges, he made them repair the causeys on which the respective cities to which they belonged were situated. He built several magnificent temples, and, among the rest, one in the city of Bubastus, of which Herodotus gives a long and elegant description. After a reign of fifty years, which was the time appointed by the oracle, he retired voluntarily to his old kingdom of Ethiopia: and left the throne of Egypt to Anysis, who, during this time, had concealed A. M. 3279. himself in the fens. It is believed that this Ant. J. C. 725. Sabachus was the same with SO, whose aid was implored by Hoshea king of Israel, against Shalmaneser king of Assyria.a Ant. J. C. 719. SETHON. He reigned fourteen years. He A. M. 3285. is the same with Sevechus, the son of Sabacon or So the Ethiopian, who reigned so long over Egypt. This prince, so far from discharging the functions of a king, was ambitious of those of a priest; causing himself to be consecrated high-priest of Vulcan. Abandoning himself entirely to superstition, he neglected to defend his kingdom by force of arms; paying no regard to military men, from a firm persuasion that he should never have occasion for their assistance: he therefore was so far from endeavouring to gain their affections, that he deprived them of their privileges, and even dispossessed them of the revenues of such lands as his predecessors had given them. He was soon made sensible of their resentment in a war that broke out suddenly, and from which he delivered himself solely by a miraculous protection, if Herodotus may be credited, who intermixes his account of this war with a great many fabulous particulars. Senacharib, (so Herodotus calls this prince,) king of the Arabians and Assyrians, having entered Egypt with a numerous army, the Egyptian officers and soldiers refused to march against him. The high-priest of Vulcan, being thus reduced to the greatest extremity, had recourse to his god, who bid him not despond, but march courageously against the enemy with the few soldiers he could raise. Sethon obeyed. A small number of merchants, artificers, and others, who were the dregs of the populace, joined him; and with this handful of men, he marched up to Pelusium, where Senacharib had Herod. ii. cap. 137. Diod. 1. i. p. 59. a 2 Kings xvii. 4. pitched his camp. The night following, a prodigious multitude of rats entered the camp of the Assyrians, and gnawing all their bowstrings, and the thongs of their shields, rendered them incapable of making the least defence. Being disarmed in this manner, they were obliged to fly; and they retreated with the loss of a great part of their forces. Sethon, when he returned home, ordered a statue of himself to be set up in the temple of Vulcan, holding in his right hand a rat, and these words to be inscribed thereon: LET THE MAN WHO BEHOLDS ME LEARN TO REVERENCE THE GODS.b It is very obvious that this story, as related here from Herodotus, is an alteration of that which is told in the Second Book of Kings. We there see, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, having subdued all the neighbouring nations, and made himself master of all the other cities of Judah, resolved to besiege Hezekiah in Jerusalem, his capital city. The ministers of this holy king, in spite of his opposition, and the remonstrances of the prophet Isaiah, who promised them, in God's name, a sure and certain protection, provided they would trust in him only, sent secretly to the Egyptians and Ethiopians for succour. Their armies, being united, marched to the relief of Jerusalem at the same time appointed, and were met and vanquished by the Assyrians in a pitched battle. He pursued them into Egypt, and entirely laid waste the country. At his return from thence, the very night before he was to have given a general assault to Jerusalem, which then seemed lost to all hopes, the destroying angel made dreadful havoc in the camp of the Assyrians; destroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand men by fire and sword; and proved evidently, that they had great reason to rely, as Hezekiah had done, on the promise of the God of Israel. This is the real fact. But as it was no ways honourable to the Egyptians, they endeavoured to turn it to their own advantage, by disguising and corrupting the circumstances of it. Nevertheless, the footsteps of this history, though so much defaced, ought yet to be highly valued, as coming from an historian of so great antiquity and authority as Herodotus. The prophet Isaiah had foretold, at several times, that this expedition of the Egyptians, which had been concerted, seemingly, with such prudence, conducted with the greatest skill, and in which the forces of two powerful empires were united, in order to relieve the Jews, would not only be of no service to Jerusalem, but even destructive to Egypt itself, whose strongest cities would be taken, its territories plundered, and its inhabitants of all ages and sexes led into captivity. See the 18th, 19th, 20th, 30th, 31st, &c. chapters of his prophecy. • Ες ἐμέ τις ορέων, εὐσεβὴς ἔστω. c Chap. xix. Archbishop Usher and Dean Prideaux suppose that it was at this period that the ruin of the famous city No-Amon," spoken of by the prophet Nahum, happened. That prophet says, that she was carried away-that her young children were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets-that the enemy cast lots for her honourable men, and that all her great men were bound in chains. He observes, that all these misfortunes befell that city, when Egypt and Ethiopia were her strength; which seems to refer clearly enough to the time of which we are here speaking, when Tharaca and Sethon had united their forces. However, this opinion is not without some difficulties, and is contradicted by some learned men. It is sufficient for me, to have hinted it to the reader. Till the reign of Sethon, the Egyptian priests computed three hundred and forty-one generations of men; which make eleven thousand three hundred and forty years; allowing three generations to a hundred years. They counted the like number of priests and kings. The latter, whether gods or men, had succeeded one another without interruption, under the name of Piromis, an Egyptian word, signifying good and virtuous. The Egyptian priests showed Herodotus three hundred and fortyone wooden colossal statues of these Piromis, all ranged in order in a great hall. Such was the folly of the Egyptians, to lose themselves as it were in a remote antiquity, to which no other people could dare to pretend. A. M. 3299. Ant. J. C. 705. THARACA. He it was who joined Sethon, with an Ethiopian army, to relieve Jerusalem. After the death of Sethon, who had sitten fourteen years on the throne, Tharaca ascended it, and reigned eighteen years. He was the last Ethiopian king who reigned in Egypt. After his death, the Egyptians, not being able to agree about the succession, were two years in a state of anarchy, during which there were great disorders and confusions among them. A. M. 3319. Twelve Kings. At last, twelve of the principal noblemen, Ant. J. C. 685. conspiring together, seized upon the kingdom, and divided it amongst themselves into as many parts. It was agreed by them, that each should govern his own district with equal power and authority, and that no one h The Vulgate calls that city Alexandria, to which the Hebrew gives the name of No-Amon; because Alexandria was afterwards built in the place where this stood. Dean Prideaux, after Bochart, thinks that it was Thebes, surnamed Diospolis. Indeed, the Egyptian Amon is the same wita Jupiter. But Thebes is not the place where Alexandria was since built. Perhaps there was another city there, which also was called No-Amon. Nahum iii. 8. 10. Herod. 1. ii. cap. 142. should attempt to invade or seize the dominions of another. They thought it necessary to make this agreement, and to bind it with the most dreadful oaths, to elude the prediction of an oracle, which had foretold, that he among them who should offer his libation to Vulcan out of a brazen bowl, should gain the sovereignty of Egypt. They reigned together fifteen years in the utmost harmony: and, to leave a famous monument of their concord to posterity, they jointly, and at a common expense, built the famous labyrinth, which was a pile of building consisting of twelve large palaces, with as many edifices under ground as appeared above it. I have spoken elsewhere of this labyrinth. One day, as the twelve kings were assisting at a solemn and periodical sacrifice offered in the temple of Vulcan, the priests, having presented each of them a golden bowl for the libation, one was wanting; when Psammetichus, without any design, supplied the want of this bowl with his brazen helmet, (for each wore one,) and with it performed the ceremony of the libation. This accident struck the rest of the kings, and recalled to their memory the prediction of the oracle above mentioned. They thought it therefore necessary to secure themselves from his attempts, and therefore, with one consent, banished him into the fenny parts of Egypt. After Psammetichus had passed some years there, waiting a favourable opportunity to revenge himself for the affront which had been put upon him, a courier brought him advice, that brazen men were landed in Egypt. These were Grecian soldiers, Carians and Ionians, who had been cast upon the coasts of Egypt by a storm; and were completely covered with helmets, cuirasses, and other arms of brass. Psammetichus immediately called to mind the oracle, which had answered him, that he should be succoured by brazen men from the sea-coast. He did not doubt but the prediction was now fulfilled. He therefore made a league with these strangers: engaged them with great promises to stay with him; privately levied other forces; and put these Greeks at their head; when giving battle to the eleven kings, he defeated them, and remained sole possessor of Egypt. A. M. 3334. k PSAMMETICHUS. As this prince owed his Ant. J. C. 670. preservation to the Ionians and Carians, he settled them in Egypt; (from which all foreigners hitherto had been excluded;) and by assigning them sufficient lands and fixed revenues, he made them forget their native country. By his order, Egyptian children were put under their care to learn the Greek tongue; and on this occasion, and by this means, the Egyptians began to have a correspondence He was one of the twelve. VOL. I. F k Herod. l. ii. c. 153. 154. |