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

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PHUT

14. The country of Phut is Libya. Jeremiah 46:9 speaks of “the Libyans that handle the shield,” and the margin reads, for Libyans, “Hebrew, Put.Ezekiel 30:5 and 38:5 also speak of “Libya,” and the margin in each place reads “Phut.” Josephus says, “Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites from himself; there is also a river in the country of the Moors [Mauritania] which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention the river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut; but the name it has now, has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mestraim, who was called Libyos,” 11 that is, the Lehabim. “The ancient Libyans possessed the whole northern coast of Africa, from the confines of Egypt to the Straits [of Gibraltar], and all the country thence reaching to the southward as far as it was known to the Greeks and Romans. It would appear that they were the only inhabitants of all these coasts before the age which preceded the foundation of the Phenician colonies among them.... The Libyan speech is still preserved among the rustic tribes who inhabit Mount Atlas, and in various parts of the interior.”—Prichard. 12 Simon the Cyrenian, who bore the cross of the Saviour, was from Cyrene, the chief city of northern Libya. It stood on that part of the African coast which projects into the Mediterranean, directly south of Greece. The original Libyans and Phutites are represented in the present Berbers and Tauricks. EB 28.1