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region

Egypt

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Events

  1. AD 969The Fatimids take Egypt; Cairo is founded beside Fustat
  2. c. AD 1008The Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete Hebrew Bible, is copied in Cairo
  3. AD 1171Saladin ends the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt
  4. c. AD 1180Maimonides completes the Mishneh Torah in Egypt
  5. AD 1250The Mamluks take power in Egypt

History

Egypt is the land of the lower Nile: a strip of watered valley and the wide Delta, shut in by desert, from the First Cataract at Syene (Aswan) to the Mediterranean. The Bible calls it Mizraim. Upper and Lower Egypt were united about 3000 BC, and the pyramids of Giza rose in the Old Kingdom, in the twenty-sixth and twenty-fifth centuries BC. In the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1069 BC) the pharaohs held Canaan as a province, and the stele of Merneptah, about 1208 BC, carries the oldest known mention of Israel outside the Bible.

Abram went down into Egypt in a famine, Joseph was sold there and rose to govern it, and Jacob's family settled in the land of Goshen. Exodus tells how a new king enslaved the Israelites and how God brought them "out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage". The date of the exodus is disputed: the figures of 1 Kings point to about 1446 BC, many scholars prefer the thirteenth century, the age of Rameses II, and others hold that the story cannot be dated. Egypt remained the great power to the south: Solomon married a pharaoh's daughter, Shishak (Shoshenq I) marched on Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam, about 925 BC, and Isaiah cried, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help".

Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo in 609 BC and was routed at Carchemish in 605. After the fall of Jerusalem Judeans fleeing the Babylonians carried Jeremiah to Egypt, where he prophesied to the Jews of Migdol, Tahpanhes and Noph. Papyri from Elephantine show a Jewish garrison with a temple of its own on the Nile under Persian rule, which began with Cambyses in 525 BC. Alexander founded Alexandria in 331 BC; the Ptolemies ruled Egypt until 30 BC, and under them the Law was translated into Greek for the Jews of Alexandria, the beginning of the Septuagint.

Matthew tells how Joseph took the child and his mother by night into Egypt until the death of Herod, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son", the words of Hosea. Jews from Egypt heard the apostles at Pentecost, and Apollos, "born at Alexandria", was "mighty in the scriptures". Isaiah's oracle on Egypt ends with a blessing: "Blessed be Egypt my people". Eusebius records the tradition that Mark founded the church of Alexandria; the Copts, Egypt's Christians, still count their years from the reign of Diocletian. The Arab Republic of Egypt, with its capital at Cairo, has more than a hundred million people, nearly all of them along the Nile.

Scripture: Gen 12:10; Gen 47:27; Exod 1:8–14; Exod 20:2; 1 Kgs 3:1; 1 Kgs 14:25–26; 2 Kgs 23:29; Isa 19:23–25; Isa 31:1; Jer 43:5–7; Jer 44:1; Hos 11:1; Matt 2:13–15; Acts 2:10; Acts 18:24

Sources

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (658)

Gen 12:10
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Gen 12:11
And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
Gen 12:14
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
Gen 13:1
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
Gen 13:10
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Gen 15:18
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Gen 21:21
And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Gen 25:18
And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
Gen 26:2
And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
Gen 37:25
And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
Gen 37:28
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Gen 37:36
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.
Gen 39:1
And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.
Gen 40:1
And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
Gen 40:5
And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
Gen 41:8
And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
Gen 41:19
And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
Gen 41:29
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
Gen 41:30
And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
Gen 41:33
Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:34
Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
Gen 41:36
And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
Gen 41:41
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:43
And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:44
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:45
And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:46
And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:48
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
Gen 41:53
And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
Gen 41:54
And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

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