Part 16

The division of _Egypt_ into more Kingdoms than one, both before and after the Reign of the _Ethiopians_, and the conquest of the _Egyptians_ by _Asserhadon_, the prophet _Isaiah_ [340] seems allude unto in these words: _I will set_, saith he, _the _Egyptians_ against the _Egyptians_, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and the Spirit of _Egypt_ shall fail.--And the _Egyptians_ will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord _[viz. _Asserhadon_]_ and a fierce King shall Reign over them.--Surely the Princes of _Zoan_ _[Tanis]_ are fools, the counsel of the wise Councellors of _Pharaoh_ is become brutish: how long say ye unto _Pharaoh_, I am the son of the ancient Kings.--The Princes of _Zoan_ are be come fools: the Princes of _Noph_ _[Memphis]_ are deceived,--even they that were the stay of the tribes thereof.--In that day there shall be a high-way out of _Egypt_ into _Assyria_, and the _Egyptians_ shall serve the _Assyrians__.

After the death of _Asserhadon_, _Egypt_ remained subject to twelve contemporary Kings, who revolted from the _Assyrians_, and Reigned together fifteen years; including I think the three years of _Asserhadon_, because the _Egyptians_ do not reckon him among their Kings. They [341] built the Labyrinth adjoining to the Lake of _Mœris_ which was a very magnificent structure, with twelve Halls in it, for their Palaces: and then _Psammitichus_, who was one of the twelve, conquered all the rest. He built the last Portico of the Temple of _Vulcan_, founded by _Menes_ about 260 years before, and Reigned 54 years, including the fifteen years of his Reign with the twelve Kings. Then Reigned _Nechaoh_ or _Nechus_, 17 years; _Psammis_ six years; _Vaphres_, _Apries_, _Eraphius_, or _Hophra_, 25 years; _Amasis_ 44 years; and _Psammenitus_ six months, according to _Herodotus_. _Egypt_ was subdued by _Nebuchadnezzar_ in the last year but one of _Hophra_, _Anno Nabonass._ 178, and remained in subjection to _Babylon_ forty years, _Jer._ xliv. 30. & _Ezek._ xxix. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19. that is, almost all the Reign of _Amasis_, a plebeian set over _Egypt_ by the conqueror: the forty years ended with the death of _Cyrus_; for he Reigned over _Egypt_ and _Ethiopia_, according to _Xenophon_. At that time therefore those nations recovered their liberty; but after four or five years more they were invaded and conquered by _Cambyses_, _Anno Nabonass._ 223 or 224, and have almost ever since remained in servitude, as was predicted by the Prophets.

The Reigns of _Psammitichus_, _Nechus_, _Psammis_, _Apries_, _Amasis_, and _Psammenitus_, set down by _Herodotus_, amount unto 146½ years: and so many years there were from the 78th year of _Nabonassar_, in which the dominion of the _Ethiopians_ over _Egypt_ came to an end, unto the 224th year of _Nabonassar_, in which _Cambyses_ invaded _Egypt_, and put an end to that Kingdom: which is an argument that _Herodotus_ was circumspect and faithful in his narrations, and has given us a good account of the antiquities of _Egypt_, so far as the Priests of _Egypt_ at _Thebes_, _Memphis_, and _Heliopolis_, and the _Carians_ and _Ionians_ inhabiting _Egypt_, were then able to inform him: for he consulted them all; and the _Cares_ and _Ionians_ had been in _Egypt_ from the time of the Reign of the twelve contemporary Kings.

_Pliny_ [342] tells us, that the _Egyptian_ Obelisks were of a sort of stone dug near _Syene_ in _Thebais_, and that the first Obelisk was made by _Mitres_, who Reigned in _Heliopolis_; that is, by _Mephres_ the predecessor of _Misphragmuthosis_; and that afterwards other Kings made others: _Sochis_, that is _Sesochis_, or _Sesac_, four, each of 48 cubits in length; _Ramises_, that is _Ramesses_, two; _Smarres_, that is _Mœris_, one of 48 cubits in length; _Eraphius_, or _Hophra_, one of 48; and _Nectabis_, or _Nectenabis_, one of 80. _Mephres_ therefore extended his dominion over all the upper _Egypt_, from _Syene_ to _Heliopolis_, and after him, _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_, Reigned _Ammon_ and _Sesac_, who erected the first great Empire in the world: and these four, _Amosis_, _Ammon_, _Sesac_, and _Orus_, Reigned in the four ages of the great Gods of _Egypt_; and _Amenophis_ was the _Menes_ who Reigned next after them: he was Succeeded by _Ramesses_, and _Mœris_, and some time after by _Hophra_.

_Diodorus_ [343] recites the same Kings of _Egypt_ with _Herodotus_, but in a more confused order, and repeats some of them twice, or oftener, under various names, and omits others: his Kings are these; _Jupiter Ammon_ and _Juno_, _Osiris_ and _Isis_, _Horus_, _Menes_, _Busiris_ I, _Busiris_ II, _Osymanduas_, _Uchoreus_, _Myris_, _Sesoosis_ I, _Sesoosis_ II, _Amasis_, _Actisanes_, _Mendes_ or _Marrus_, _Proteus_, _Remphis_, _Chembis_, _Cephren_, _Mycerinus_ or _Cherinus_, _Gnephacthus_, _Bocchoris_, _Sabacon_, twelve contemporary Kings, _Psammitichus_, * * _Apries_, _Amasis_. Here I take _Sesoosis_ I, and _Sesoosis_ II, _Busiris_ I, and _Busiris_ II, to be the same Kings with _Osiris_ and _Orus_: also _Osymanduas_ to be the same with _Amenophis_ or _Menes_: also _Amasis_, and _Actisanes_, an _Ethiopian_ who conquered him, to be the same with _Anysis_ and _Sabacon_ in _Herodotus_: and _Uchoreus_, _Mendes_, _Marrus_, and _Myris_, to be only several names of one and the same King. Whence the catalogue of _Diodorus_ will be reduced to this: _Jupiter Ammon_ and _Juno_; _Osiris_, _Busiris_ or _Sesoosis_, and _Isis_; _Horus_, _Busiris_ II, or _Sesoosis_ II; _Menes_, or _Osymanduas_; _Proteus_; _Remphis_ or _Ramesses_; _Uchoreus_, _Mendes_, _Marrus_, or _Myris_; _Chembis_ or _Cheops_; _Cephren_; _Mycerinus_; * * _Gnephacthus_; _Bocchoris_; _Amasis_, or _Anysis_; _Actisanes_, or _Sabacon_; * twelve contemporary Kings; _Psammitichus_; * * _Apries_; _Amasis_: to which, if in their proper places you add _Nitocris_, _Asychis_, _Sethon_, _Nechus_, and _Psammis,_ you will have the catalogue of _Herodotus_.

The Dynasties of _Manetho_ and _Eratosthenes_ seem to be filled with many such names of Kings as _Herodotus_ omitted: when it shall be made appear that any of them Reigned in _Egypt_ after the expulsion of the Shepherds, and were different from the Kings described above, they may be inserted in their proper places.

_Egypt_ was conquered by the _Ethiopians_ under _Sabacon_, about the beginning of the _Æra_ of _Nabonassar_, or perhaps three or four years before, that is, about three hundred years before _Herodotus_ wrote his history; and about eighty years after that conquest, it was conquered again by the _Assyrians_ under _Asserhadon_: and the history of _Egypt_ set down by _Herodotus_ from the time of this last conquest, is right both as to the number, and order, and names of the Kings, and as to the length of their Reigns: and therein he is now followed by historians, being the only author who hath given us so good a history of _Egypt_, for that interval of time. If his history of the earlier times be less accurate, it was because the archives of _Egypt_ had suffered much during the Reign of the _Ethiopians_ and _Assyrians_: and it is not likely that the Priests of _Egypt_, who lived two or three hundred years after the days of _Herodotus_, could mend the matter: on the contrary, after _Cambyses_ had carried away the records of _Egypt_, the Priests were daily feigning new Kings, to make their Gods and nation look ancient; as is manifest by comparing _Herodotus_ with _Diodorus Siculus_, and both of them with what _Plato_ relates out of the Poem of _Solon_: which Poem makes the wars of the great Gods of _Egypt_ against the _Greeks_, to have been in the days of _Cecrops_, _Erechtheus_ and _Erichthonius_, and a little before those of _Theseus_; these Gods at that time instituting Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves. I have therefore chosen to rely upon the stories related to _Herodotus_ by the Priests of _Egypt_ in those days, and corrected by the Poem of _Solon_, so as to make these Gods of _Egypt_ no older than _Cecrops_ and _Erechtheus_, and their successor _Menes_ no older than _Theseus_ and _Memnon_, and the Temple of _Vulcan_ not above 280 years in building: rather than to correct _Herodotus_ by _Manetho_, _Eratosthenes_, _Diodorus_, and others, who lived after the Priests of _Egypt_ had corrupted their Antiquities much more than they had done in the days of _Herodotus_.

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CHAP. III.

_Of the _ASSYRIAN_ Empire._

As the Gods or ancient Deified Kings and Princes of _Greece_, _Egypt_, and _Syria_ of _Damascus_, have been made much ancienter than the truth, so have those of _Chaldæa_ and _Assyria_: for _Diodorus_ [344] tells us, that when _Alexander_ the great was in _Asia_, the _Chaldæans_ reckoned 473000 years since they first began to observe the Stars; and _Ctesias_, and the ancient _Greek_ and _Latin_ writers who copy from him, have made the _Assyrian_ Empire as old as _Noah_'s flood within 60 or 70 years, and tell us the names of all the Kings of _Assyria_ downwards, from _Belus_ and his feigned son _Ninus_, to _Sardanapalus_ the last King of that Monarchy: but the names of his Kings, except two or three, have no affinity with the names of the _Assyrians_ mentioned in Scripture; for the _Assyrians_ were usually named after their Gods, _Bel_ or _Pul_; _Chaddon_, _Hadon_, _Adon_, or _Adonis_; _Melech_ or _Moloch_; _Atsur_ or _Assur_; _Nebo_; _Nergal_; _Merodach_: as in these names, _Pul_, _Tiglath-Pul-Assur_, _Salman-Assur_, _Adra-Melech_, _Shar-Assur_, _Assur-Hadon_, _Sardanapalus_ or _Assur-Hadon-Pul_, _Nabonassar_ or _Nebo-Adon-Assur_, _Bel Adon_, _Chiniladon_ or _Chen-El-Adon_, _Nebo-Pul-Assur_, _Nebo-Chaddon-Assur_, _Nebuzaradon_ or _Nebo-Assur-Adon_, _Nergal-Assur_, _Nergal-Shar-Assur_, _Labo-Assur-dach_, _Sheseb-Assur_, _Beltes-Assur_, _Evil-Merodach_, _Shamgar-Nebo_, _Rabsaris_ or _Rab-Assur_, _Nebo-Shashban_, _Mardocempad_ or _Merodach-Empad_. Such were the _Assyrian_ names; but those in _Ctesias_ are of another sort, except _Sardanapalus_, whose name he had met with in _Herodotus_. He makes _Semiramis_ as old as the first _Belus_; but _Herodotus_ tells us, that she was but five Generations older than the mother of _Labynetus_: he represents that the city _Ninus_ was founded by a man of the same name, and _Babylon_ by _Semiramis_; whereas either _Nimrod_ or _Assur_ founded those and other cities, without giving his own name to any of them: he makes the _Assyrian_ Empire continue about 1360 years, whereas _Herodotus_ tells us that it lasted only 500 years, and the numbers of _Herodotus_ concerning those ancient times are all of them too long: he makes _Nineveh_ destroyed by the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_, three hundred years before the Reign of _Astibares_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_ who destroyed it, and sets down the names of seven or eight feigned Kings of _Media_, between the destruction of _Nineveh_ and the Reigns of _Astibares_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_, as if the Empire of the _Medes_, erected upon the ruins of the _Assyrian_ Empire, had lasted 300 years, whereas it lasted but 72: and the true Empire of the _Assyrians_ described in Scripture, whose Kings were _Pul_, _Tiglath-pilesar_, _Shalmaneser_, _Sennacherib_, _Asserhadon_, &c. he mentions not, tho' much nearer to his own times; which shews that he was ignorant of the antiquities of the _Assyrians_. Yet something of truth there is in the bottom of some of his stories, as there uses to be in Romances; as, that _Nineveh_ was destroyed by the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_; that _Sardanapalus_ was the last King of the _Assyrian_ Empire; and that _Astibares_ and _Astyages_ were Kings of the _Medes_: but he has made all things too ancient, and out of vainglory taken too great a liberty in feigning names and stories to please his reader.

When the _Jews_ were newly returned from the _Babylonian_ captivity, they confessed their Sins in this manner, _Now therefore our God, ---- let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us, on our Kings, on our Princes, and on our Priests, and on our Prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the Kings of _Assyria_, unto this day_; _Nehem._ ix. 32. that is, since the time of the Kingdom of _Assyria_, or since the rise of that Empire; and therefore the _Assyrian_ Empire arose when the Kings of _Assyria_ began to afflict the inhabitants of _Palestine_; which was in the days of _Pul_: he and his successors afflicted _Israel_, and conquered the nations round about them; and upon the ruin of many small and ancient Kingdoms erected their Empire, conquering the _Medes_ as well as other nations: but of these conquests _Ctesias_ knew not a word, no not so much as the names of the conquerors, or that there was an _Assyrian_ Empire then standing; for he supposes that the _Medes_ Reigned at that time, and that the _Assyrian_ Empire was at an end above 250 years before it began.

However we must allow that _Nimrod_ founded a Kingdom at _Babylon_, and perhaps extended it into _Assyria_: but this Kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the Empires which rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of _Chaldæa_, _Chalonitis_ and _Assyria_, watered by the _Tigris_ and _Euphrates_: and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his territories amongst his sons. So _Noah_ was King of all the world, and _Cham_ was King of all _Afric_, and _Japhet_ of all _Europe_ and _Asia minor_; but they left no standing Kingdoms. After the days of _Nimrod_, we hear no more of an _Assyrian_ Empire 'till the days of _Pul_. The four Kings who in the days of _Abraham_ invaded the southern coast of _Canaan_ came from the countries where _Nimrod_ had Reigned, and perhaps were some of his posterity who had shared his conquests. In the time of the Judges of _Israel_, _Mesopotamia_ was under its own King, _Judg._ iii. 8. and the King of _Zobah_ Reigned on both sides of the River _Euphrates_ 'till _David_ conquered him, 2 _Sam._ viii, and x. The Kingdoms of _Israel_, _Moab_, _Ammon_, _Edom_, _Philistia_, _Zidon_, _Damascus_, and _Hamath_ the great, continued subject to other Lords than the _Assyrians_ 'till the days of _Pul_ and his successors; and so did the house of _Eden_, _Amos_ i. 5. 2 _Kings_ xix. 12. and _Haran_ or _Carrhæ_, _Gen._ xii. 2 _Kings_ xix. 12. and _Sepharvaim_ in _Mesopotamia_, and _Calneh_ near _Bagdad_, _Gen._ x. 10, _Isa._ x. 9, 2 _Kings_ xvii. 31. _Sesac_ and _Memnon_ were great conquerors, and Reigned over _Chaldæa_, _Assyria_, and _Persia_, but in their histories there is not a word of any opposition made to them by an _Assyrian_ Empire then standing: on the contrary, _Susiana_, _Media_, _Persia_, _Bactria_, _Armenia_, _Cappadocia_, &c. were conquered by them, and continued subject to the Kings of _Egypt_ 'till after the long Reign of _Ramesses_ the son of _Memnon_, as above.

_Homer_ mentions _Bacchus_ and _Memnon_ Kings of _Egypt_ and _Persia_, but knew nothing of an _Assyrian_ Empire. _Jonah_ prophesied when _Israel_ was in affliction under the King of _Syria_, and this was in the latter part of the Reign of _Jehoahaz_, and first part of the Reign of _Joash_, Kings of _Israel_, and I think in the Reign of _Mœris_ the successor of _Ramesses_ King of _Egypt_, and about sixty years before the Reign of _Pul_; and _Nineveh_ was then a city of large extent, but full of pastures for cattle, so that it contained but about 120000 persons. It was not yet grown so great and potent as not to be terrified at the preaching of _Jonah_, and to fear being invaded by its neighbours and ruined within forty days: it had some time before got free from the dominion of _Egypt_, and had got a King of its own; but its King was not yet called King of _Assyria_, but only King of _Nineveh_, _Jonah_ iii. 6, 7. and his proclamation for a fast was not published in several nations, nor in all _Assyria_, but only in _Nineveh_, and perhaps in the villages thereof; but soon after, when the dominion of _Nineveh_ was established at home, and exalted over all _Assyria_ properly so called, and this Kingdom began to make war upon the neighbouring nations, its Kings were no longer called Kings of _Nineveh_ but began to be called Kings of _Assyria_.

_Amos_ prophesied in the Reign of _Jeroboam_ the Son of _Joash_ King of _Israel_, soon after _Jeroboam_ had subdued the Kingdoms of _Damascus_ and _Hamath_, that is, about ten or twenty years before the Reign of _Pul_: and he [345] thus reproves _Israel_ for being lifted up by those conquests; _Ye which rejoyce in a thing of nought, which say, have we not taken to us horns by our strength? But behold I will raise up against you a nation, O house of _Israel_, saith the Lord the God of Hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entring in of _Hamath_ unto the river of the wilderness_. God here threatens to raise up a nation against _Israel_; but what nation he names not; that he conceals 'till the _Assyrians_ should appear and discover it. In the prophesies of _Isaiah_, _Jeremiah_, _Ezekiel_, _Hosea_, _Micah_, _Nahum_, _Zephaniah_ and _Zechariah_, which were written after the Monarchy grew up, it is openly named upon all occasions; but in this of _Amos_ not once, tho' the captivity of _Israel_ and _Syria_ be the subject of the prophesy, and that of _Israel_ be often threatned: he only saith in general that _Syria_ should go into captivity unto _Kir_, and that _Israel_, notwithstanding her present greatness, should go into captivity beyond _Damascus_; and that God would raise up a nation to afflict them: meaning that he would raise up above them from a lower condition, a nation whom they yet feared not: for so the _Hebrew_ word מקם signifies when applied to men, as in _Amos_ v. 2. 1 _Sam._ xii. 11. _Psal._ cxiii. 7. _Jer._ x. 20. l. 32. _Hab._ i. 6. _Zech._ xi. 16. As _Amos_ names not the _Assyrians_; at the writing of this prophecy they made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against _Israel_, and by consequence rose up in the days of _Pul_ and his successors: for after _Jeroboam_ had conquered _Damascus_ and _Hamath_, his successor _Menahem_ destroyed _Tiphsah_ with its territories upon _Euphrates_, because they opened not to him: and therefore _Israel_ continued in its greatness 'till _Pul_, probably grown formidable by some victories, caused _Menahem_ to buy his peace. _Pul_ therefore Reigning presently after the prophesy of _Amos_, and being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly reckoned the first conqueror and founder of this Empire. For _God stirred up the spirit of _Pul_, and the spirit of _Tiglath-pileser_ King of _Assyria__, 1 _Chron._ v. 20.

The same Prophet _Amos_, in prophesying against _Israel_, threatned them in this manner, with what had lately befallen other Kingdoms: _Pass ye_, [346] saith he, _unto _Calneh_ and see, and from thence go ye to _Hamath_ the great, then go down to _Gath_ of the _Philistims_. Be they better than these Kingdoms?_ These Kingdoms were not yet conquered by the _Assyrians_, except that of _Calneh_ or _Chalonitis_ upon _Tigris_, between _Babylon_ and _Nineveh_. _Gath_ was newly vanquished [347] by _Uzziah_ King of _Judah_, and _Hamath_ [348] by _Jeroboam_ King of _Israel_: and while the Prophet, in threatning _Israel_ with the _Assyrians_, instances in desolations made by other nations, and mentions no other conquest of the _Assyrians_ than that of _Chalonitis_ near _Nineveh_; it argues that the King of _Nineveh_ was now beginning his conquests, and had not yet made any great progress in that vast career of victories, which we read of a few years after.

For about seven years after the captivity of the ten Tribes, when _Sennacherib_ warred in _Syria_, which was in the 16th Olympiad, he [349] sent this message to the King of _Judah_: _Behold, thou hast heard that the Kings of _Assyria_ have done to all Lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? Have the Gods of the nations delivered them which the Gods of my fathers have destroyed, as _Gozan_ and _Haran_ and _Reseph_, and the children of _Eden_ which were in _[the Kingdom of] Thelasar_? Where is the King of _Hamath_, and the King of _Arpad_, and the King of the city of _Sepharvaim_, and of _Hena_ and _Ivah__? And _Isaiah_ [350] thus introduceth the King of _Assyria_ boasting: _Are not my Princes altogether as Kings? Is not _Calno [or _Calneh_]_ as _Carchemish_? Is not _Hamath_ as _Arpad_? Is not _Samaria_ as _Damascus_? As my hand hath found the Kingdoms of the Idols, and whose graven Images did excel them of _Jerusalem_ and of _Samaria_; shall I not as I have done unto _Samaria_ and her Idols, so do to _Jerusalem_ and her Idols?_ All this desolation is recited as fresh in memory to terrify the _Jews_, and these Kingdoms reach to the borders of _Assyria_, and to shew the largeness of the conquests they are called _all lands_, that is, all round about _Assyria_. It was the custom of the Kings of _Assyria_, for preventing the rebellion of people newly conquered, to captivate and transplant those of several countries into one another's lands, and intermix them variously: and thence it appears [351] that _Halah_, and _Habor_, and _Hara_, and _Gozan_, and the cities of the _Medes_ into which _Galilee_ and _Samaria_ were transplanted; and _Kir_ into which _Damascus_ was transplanted; and _Babylon_ and _Cuth_ or the _Susanchites_, and _Hamath_, and _Ava_, and _Sepharvaim_, and the _Dinaites_, and the _Apharsachites_, and the _Tarpelites_, and the _Archevites_, and the _Dehavites_, and the _Elamites_, or _Persians_, part of all which nations were led captive by _Asserhadon_ and his predecessors into _Samaria_; were all of them conquered by the _Assyrians_ not long before.