town or village

Memphis

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Events

1. c. 3100 BCUpper and Lower Egypt united under the First Dynasty
2. c. 728 BCPiye of Kush conquers Egypt and takes Memphis
3. 671 BCEsarhaddon takes Memphis
4. 196 BCThe priests at Memphis decree honours for Ptolemy V (the Rosetta Stone)

In ancient writers

• Herodotus, Histories 2.99 — The priests told Herodotus that Min, the first king of Egypt, dammed the Nile and diverted it to found Memphis on the reclaimed land; the Persians still guard that dyke every year, for if it broke Memphis would flood.
• Strabo, Geography 17.1.31 — Memphis, the residence of the kings of Egypt, lies three schoeni from the Delta and holds many temples, among them that of Apis, where the sacred bull is kept in a sanctuary and held to be a god.

History

Memphis lay on the west bank of the Nile about 20 km south of modern Cairo, near the point where the river opens into the delta; its ruins are at the village of Mit Rahina. Herodotus heard that Min, the first king of Egypt, founded it after damming the Nile and built there the temple of Ptah, whom the Greeks called Hephaestus. Memphis was the capital of the united kingdom from about 3000 BC, and the kings of the Old Kingdom were buried on the desert edge nearby, in the pyramids of Saqqara, among them Djoser's step pyramid, and of Giza and Dahshur.

Even when the kings of later ages ruled from Thebes, Memphis remained a royal residence and the chief city of Lower Egypt. In 671 BC the Assyrian king Esarhaddon took it from the Kushite king Taharqa, the Tirhakah of the Bible, within half a day by Esarhaddon's own account, and Ashurbanipal recovered it a few years later. In 525 BC Cambyses of Persia besieged and took the city after his victory at Pelusium.

In the Hebrew Bible the city is called Noph, and in Hosea Moph, which the KJV renders Memphis. Isaiah says that the princes of Noph are deceived, and Hosea that Memphis shall bury the Israelites who flee to Egypt. Jeremiah lists Noph among the places where Jews lived in Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem and foretold that Noph shall be waste and desolate; Ezekiel, that God would cause the images to cease out of Noph.

Alexander the Great came to Memphis in 332 BC and sacrificed to Apis, the sacred bull kept there. The Ptolemies made Alexandria their capital, but Ptolemy V was crowned at Memphis, and the Rosetta Stone carries a decree issued there by the assembled priests in 196 BC. Strabo still found Memphis large and populous, second only to Alexandria, though its palaces lay in ruins. In the Roman and Christian centuries the city declined, and much of its stone was later carried off to build medieval Cairo.

Scripture: Isa 19:13; Jer 2:16; Jer 44:1; Jer 46:14; Jer 46:19; Ezek 30:13; Ezek 30:16; Hos 9:6; 2 Kgs 19:9

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

Verses (8)

Isa 19:13

The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

Jer 2:16

Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head.

Jer 44:1

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

Jer 46:14

Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.

Jer 46:19

O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.

Ezek 30:13

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

Ezek 30:16

And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily.

Hos 9:6

For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

King James Version