Even in the time of Abraham, Egypt was a flourishing and settled
monarchy. Its oldest capital, within the historic period, was Memphis, the
ruins of which may still be seen near the Pyramids and the Sphinx. When
the Old Empire of Menes came to an end, the seat of empire was shifted to
Thebes, some 300 miles farther up the Nile. A short time after that, the
Delta was conquered by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who fixed their
capital at Zoan, the Greek Tanis, now San, on the Tanic arm of the Nile.
All this occurred before the time of the new king “which knew not Joseph”
(Exodus 1:8). In later times Egypt was conquered by the Persians (B.C.
525), and by the Greeks under Alexander the Great (B.C. 332), after whom
the Ptolemies ruled the country for three centuries. Subsequently it was
for a time a province of the Roman Empire; and at last, in A.D. 1517, it fell
into the hands of the Turks, of whose empire it still forms nominally a
part. Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt in the time of the shepherd kings.
The exile of Joseph and the migration of Jacob to “the land of Goshen”
occurred about 200 years later. On the death of Solomon, Shishak, king of
Egypt, invaded Palestine (1 Kings 14:25). He left a list of the cities he
conquered.
A number of remarkable clay tablets, discovered at Tell-el-Amarna in
Upper Egypt, are the most important historical records ever found in
connection with the Bible. They most fully confirm the historical
statements of the Book of Joshua, and prove the antiquity of civilization
in Syria and Palestine. As the clay in different parts of Palestine differs, it
has been found possible by the clay alone to decide where the tablets come
from when the name of the writer is lost. The inscriptions are cuneiform,
and in the Aramaic language, resembling Assyrian. The writers are
Phoenicians, Amorites, and Philistines, but in no instance Hittites, though
Hittites are mentioned. The tablets consist of official dispatches and
letters, dating from B.C. 1480, addressed to the two Pharaohs, Amenophis
III. and IV., the last of this dynasty, from the kings and governors of
Phoenicia and Palestine. There occur the names of three kings killed by
Joshua, Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, Japhia, king of Lachish (Joshua
10:3), and Jabin, king of Hazor (11:1); also the Hebrews (Abiri) are said to
have come from the desert.
The principal prophecies of Scripture regarding Egypt are these, Isaiah 19;
Jeremiah 43: 8-13; 44:30; 46; Ezekiel 29-32; and it might be easily shown
that they have all been remarkably fulfilled. For example, the singular