It was in the time of the decline of the Israelite kingdom, and during the subsequent existence of that of Judah, that Memphis became important to the Hebrews. The Ethiopians of the 25th dynasty, or their Egyptian vassals of the 23d and 24th, probably, and the Saites of the 26th, cer tainly, made Memphis the political capital of Egypt. Hosea mentions Memphis only with Egypt, as the great city, predicting of the Israelite fugitives, Mizraim shall gather them up, Noph shall bury them' (ix. 6). Memphis, the city of the vast necropolis, where Osiris and Anubis, gods of the dead, threatened to put in the shade the worship of the local divinity, Ptah, could not be more accu rately characterized. No other city but Abydos was as much occupied with burial, and Abydos was far inferior in the extent of its necropolis. With the same force that personifies Memphis as the burier of the unhappy fugitives, the prophet Nahum describes Thebes as walled and fortified by the sea (iii. 8), as the Nile has been called in ancient and modern times, for Thebes alone of the cities of Egypt lay on both sides of the river (Smith's Dic tionary of the Bible, NOPH, No-AmmoN). Isaiah, in the wonderful Burden of Egypt, which has been more markedly and literally fulfilled than perhaps any other like portion of Scripture, couples the princes of Zoan (Tanis) with the princes of Noph as evil advisers of Pharabh and Egypt (xix. 13). Egypt was then weakly governed by the last Tanite king of the 23d dynasty, as ally or vassal of Tirhakah ; and Memphis, as already remarked, was the poli tical capital. In Jeremiah, Noph is spoken of with Tahapanes,' the frontier stronghold Daphnze, as an enemy of Israel (ii. 16). It is difficult to explain the importance here given to Tahapanes.' Was it to warn the Israelites that the first city of Egypt which they should afterwards enter in their for bidden flight was a city of enemies? In his prophecy of the overthrow of Pharaoh Necho's army, the same prophet warns Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes' of the approach of the invader (xlvi. 14), warns the capital, and the frontier towns. When Migdol and 'Tahpanhes' had fallen, or whatever other strongholds guarded the eastern border, the Delta could not be defended. When Memphis was taken, not only the capital was in the hands of the enemy, but the frontier -fort commanding the entrance of the valley of Upper Egypt had fallen. And later he says that Noph shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant' (19). And so it is, while many other cities of that day yet flourish— as Hermopolis Parva and Sebennytus in the Delta ; Lycopolis, Latopolis, and Syene, in Upper. Egypt ;
or still exist as villages, like Chemmis (Panopolis), Tentyra, and Hermonthis, in the latter division— it is doubtful if any village on the site of Mem phis, once the most populous city of Egypt, even Preserves its name. Latest in time, Ezekiel pro phesies the coming distress and final overthrow of Memphis. Egypt is to be filled with slain ; the rivers are to be dried and the lands made waste , idols and false gods are to cease out of Noph ; there is to be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.' So much is general, and refers to an invasion by Nebuchadnezzar. Noph, as by Hosea, is coupled with Egypt—the capital with the state. Then more particularly Pathros, Zoan, and No are to suffer ; Sin and No again ; and with more vivid distinctness the distresses of Sin, No, Noph, Aven, Pi-beseth, and Tehaplinehes' are foretold, as though the prophet witnessed the advance of fire and sword, each city taken, its garrison and fighting citizens, the young men,' slain, and its fair build ings given over to the flames, as the invader marched upon Daphne, Pelusium, Tanis, Bu bastis, and Heliopolis, until Memphis fell before him, and beyond Memphis Thebes alone offered resistance, and met with the like overthrow (xxx. 1-19). Perhaps these vivid images represent, by the force of repetition and their climax -like arrangement, but one series of calamities : perhaps they represent three invasions—that of Nebuchad nezzar, of which we may expect history one day to tell us;" that of Cambyses ; and last, and most ruinous of all, that of Ochus. The minuteness with which the first and more particular predic tion as to Memphis has been fulfilled is very noticeable. The images and idols of Noph have disappeared; when the site of almost every other ancient town of Egypt is marked by colossi and statues, but one, and that fallen, with some insig nificant neighbours, is found where once stood its greatest city.
The chief authorities on the subject of this article are Lepsius, Denkmaler au: Aegygpten and Aethlopien ; Brugsch, Geographische inschriflen ; Col. Howard Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh, fol. plates, and 8vo text and plates ; Sir J. G. Wilkinson, Modern Egypt and Thebes, and Handbook to Eg,11; and Mrs. Poole, Englishwoman in Egypt, where the topography and description of the necropolis and the pyramids are by Mr. Lane.—R. S. P.