The Empires of the Bible from the Confusion of Tongues to the Babylonian Captivity

MIZRAIM

12. The place of Mizraim is Egypt itself, both Upper and Lower, extending from the cataracts of Syene about the twenty-fourth parallel north latitude, over all the valley of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea. “In Hebrew, Egypt is called Mizraim.... It describes the country with reference to its two great natural divisions, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, or the Delta. In the prophets, Mazor occurs as the singular form, and means Lower Egypt, Pathros being used for Upper Egypt.... The Hebrew Mazor is preserved in the Arabic Misr, pronounced Masr in the vulgar dialect of Egypt. It occurs in the Koran as the name of Egypt.” ⁸ Says Josephus, “The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name; for all who inhabit this country [of Judea] call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans.” ⁹ In the account of the funeral of Jacob, the record says: “And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he [Joseph] made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim [that is, the mourning of the Egyptians—margin], which is beyond Jordan.” ¹⁰ EB 27.2

13. The sons of Mizraim all dwelt in the land of their father. They were “Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim [see p. 28], and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim.” These seem to have inhabited the valley of the Nile, from Upper to Lower, almost in the order in which they are named. The Philistim were the Philistines, who dwelt a little above the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and from whom comes the name Palestine, which the ancient “land of Canaan” still bears. EB 27.3