HOPHRA), king of Egypt in the time of Zedekiah king of Judah, and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He formed alliance with the former against the latter, and his advance with an Egyp tian army constmined the Chaldxans to raise the siege of Jerusalem (Jer. xxxvii. 5); but they soon returned and took and destroyed the city. This momentary aid, and the danger of placing reliance on the protection of Hophra, led Ezekiel to com pare tile Egyptians to a broken iced, which was td pierce the hand of him that leaned upon it (Ezek. xxix. 6, 7). This alliance was disapproved by God ; and Jeremiah was authorised to deliver the prophecy contained in his 44th chapter, vvhich con cludes with a prediction of Hophra's death and the subjugation of his country by the Chaldmans LCOMp. EGYPT].
This Pharaoh-hophra is identified with the Apries or Vaphres of ancient authors, and he may be the Psamatik III. of the monuments. Under this iden tification we may conclude that his wars with the Syrians and Cyrenmans prevented him from afford ing any great assistance to Zedekiah. Apries is described by Ilerodotus (ii. i69) as a monarch who, in the zenith of his glory, felt persuaded that it was not in the power even of a deity to dispossess him of his kingdom, or to shake the stability of his sway ; and this account of his arrogance fully ac cords with that contained in the Bible. Ezekiel (xxix. 3) speaks of this king as the great dmgon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.' His overthrow and subsequent captivity and death are foretold with remarkable precision by Jeremiah (xliv. 30) ; I will give Pharaoh hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his ene mies, and into the hands of them that seek his life.' This was brought about by a revolt of the troops, who placed Amasis at their head, and after various conflicts took Apries prisoner. He was for a time kept in easy captivity by Amasis, who wished to spare his life ; but he was at length con strained to give him up to the vengeance of his enemies, by whom he was strangled (IIerod. 169 ; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, 1. 168-1S2).
J. K HOR hh ; Sept. 'Pp), a mountain of Arabia Petrxa on the confines of Idumxa, and forming part of the mountain of Seir or Edom. It is only mentioned in Scripture in connection with the circumstances recorded in Num. xx. 22-29. The Israelites were encampcd before it, when Aaron was summoned to its top to clie there, in the presence of his brother and son, who alone witnessed his final departure. [AAR0N.] The mountain now identified with Mount Hor is the most conspicuous in the whole range of Mount Seir, and at this day bears the name of Mount Aaron (Jebel Haroun). It is in N. lat. 3o° IS' E. long. 35° 33' about mid-way between tne Dead Sea and the iElanitic Gulf. It may be open to question if this is really the Mount Hor on which Aaron died, seeing that the whole range of Seir was anciently called by that name ; yet, from its height and the conspicuous manner in which it rises among the surrounding rocks, it seems not unlikely to have been the chosen scene of the high priest's death (Kinnear, p. 127). To this may be
added that Josephus affirms Mount Hor to have been near Petra ; and near that place there is cer tainly no mountain which can contest the distinc tion with the one now in view. The base of the highest pinnacle of this mountain is in fact but a lit,tle removed from the skirts of the city to the westward. The account of it given twenty years since by Captains Irby and Mangles, in their then unpublished volume of Travels, is the best we yet possess, and we therefore present the substance of their description in their own words.
We engaged an Arab shepherd as our guide, and leaving Abou Raschid with our servants and horses where the steepness of the ascent com mences, we began to mount the track, which is extremely steep and toilsome, and affords but an indifferent footing. In some parts the pilgrim must pick his way as he can, and frequently on his hands and knees. Where by nature it would have been impassable, there are flights of rude steps or inclined planes, constructed of stones laid together, and here and there are niches to receive the footsteps, cut in the live rock : the impressions of pilgrims' feet are scratched in the rock in many places, but without inscriptions. Much juniper grows on the mountain, almost to the very summit, and many flowering plants which we had not ob served elsewhere ; some of these are very beautiful; most of them are thorny. On the top there is an overhanging shelf in the rock which forms a sort of cavern : here we found a skin of extremely bad water suspended for drinking, and a pallet of straw, with the pitcher and other poor utensils of tbe sheikh who resides here. He is a decrepit old man, who has lived here during the space of forty years, and occasionally endured the fatigue of de scending and re-ascending the mountain. The tomb itself Ss enclosed in a small building, differing not at all in external form and appearance from those of Mohammedan saints common throughout every province of Turkey. It has probably been rebuilt at no remote period : some small columns are bedded in the walls, and some fragments of granite and slabs of white marble are lying about. The door is near the south-west angle, within which a constructed tomb, with a pall thrown over it, presents itself immediately upon entering : it is patched together out of fragments of stone and marble that have made part of other fabrics. Upon one of these are several short lines in the IIebrew character, cut in a slovenly manner : we had them interpreted at Acre, and they proved to be merely the names of a Jew and his family who had scratched this record. It is not probable that any professed Jew has visited the spot for ages past, probably not since the period of the Mohammedan conquest ; it may lay claim, therefore, to some antiquity, and in any case is a curious appendage to the testimony of Josephus on the subject. There are rags and shreds of yarn, with glass beads and paras, left as votive offerings by the Arabs.