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MIZRAIM

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 629 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MIZRAIM , the biblical name for See also:

Egypt (Gen. x. 6, 13, See also:Hebrew M4rayim; the apparently dual termination -aim may be due to a misunderstanding); there is an alternative poetical See also:form See also:Manor (2 See also:Kings xix. 24, &c.). In Isa. xi. ri the name is kept distinct from Pathros or Upper Egypt, and represents some portion at least of See also:Lower Egypt. It perhaps means " boundary " or " frontier," a somewhat ambiguous See also:term, which illustrates the topographical problems. First (a), E. See also:Schrader, pointed out in 1874 that the Assyrians knew of some Musri (i.e. Mizraim) in See also:North See also:Syria, and it is extremely probable that this See also:land is referred to in 2 Kings vii. 6 (mentioned with the See also:Hittites), and in I Kings x. 2& seq., 2 Chron. i. 16 seq., where the word for " droves " (Heb. m-q-v-h) conceals the contiguous land Kue (See also:Cilicia) 1 Next (b), C. T.

See also:

Beke, as See also:long ago as 1834, concluded in his Origines biblicae (p. 167 et passim) that Egypt " in the Old Testament sometimes designates a See also:district near See also:Midian and the Gulf of `See also:Akaba, and the view restated recently and quite independently by H. Winckler on later See also:evidence (1893) has been the subject of continued debate. Egypt is known to have laid claim to the See also:southern See also:half of See also:Palestine from See also:early times, and consequently the See also:extension of the name of Egypt beyond the limits of Egypt and of the Sinaitic See also:peninsula, is inherently probable. When, for example, Hagar, the " See also:Egyptian," is the ancestress of Ishmaelite tribes, the evidence makes it very unlikely that the term is to be understood in the strict ethnical sense; and there are other passages more suitably interpreted on the See also:hypothesis that the wider extension of the term was once See also:familiar. In the second half of the 8th See also:century B.C., See also:Assyrian See also:inscriptions allude to a powerful Musri at a See also:time when the See also:Nile See also:empire was disintegrated and scarcely in a position to See also:play the See also:part ascribed to it (i.e. if by Musri we are to under-stand Egypt)? Not until the supremacy of Tirhakah does the See also:ambiguity begin to disappear, and much depends upon the 1 See further, H. Winckler, Alt. test. Untersuch. (1892), pp. 168-174. 2 So, too, according to one passage, Tiglath-pileser IV. appoints a See also:governor over Musri before Egypt itself had actually been conquered.

unbiased discussion of the related biblical See also:

history (especially the writings of See also:Isaiah and See also:Hosea) and the Egyptian data. But even in the See also:period of disintegration the See also:minor princes of the See also:Delta were no doubt associated with their eastern neighbours, and although the Assyrian Musri stands in the same relation to the See also:people of Philistia as do the Edomites and allied tribes of the Old Testament, Philistia itself was always intimately associated with Egypt. (See See also:PHILISTINES.) The problem is complicated by the obscurity which over-hangs the history of See also:south Palestine and the Delta (see See also:EDoM; MIDIAN). The See also:political importance of Egypt was not See also:constant, and the known fluctuations of See also:geographical terms combine with the doubtful accuracy of early writers to increase the difficulties. The Assyrian evidence alone points very strongly to a Mugi in north-See also:west See also:Arabia; the biblical evidence alone suggests an extra-Egyptian Migayim. On the whole the result of discussion has been to admit the See also:probability that Misrayim could refer to a district outside the limits of Egypt proper. But it has not justified the application of this conclusion to all the instances in which some critics have relied upon it, or the sweeping inferences and reconstructions which have sometimes been based upon it. Each See also:case must be taken on its merits. See further, H. Winckler, Altorient. Forschungen, i. 24 seq; Mitteil. d. vorderasiat.

Gesell. (1898), pp. i sqq., 169 sqq.; Hibbert See also:

Journal (See also:April 1904) ; Keilinschr. u. das alte Test., 3rd ed., 136 sqq. ; and lm Kampfe See also:urn den See also:alien Orient, ii. (1907); T. K. See also:Cheyne, especially See also:Kingdom of See also:Judah (1908), pp. xiv. sqq: ; F. Hommel, Vier neue arab. Landschaftsnamen in A.T. For criticisms (many of them somewhat captious) see See also:Konig's reply to Hommel (See also:Berlin, 1902), A. Noordtzij, Theolog. Tijdsch. (1906, See also:July, See also:September), and E.

See also:

Meyer, Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstamme, pp. 455 sqq. A valuable survey of the geographical and other conditions is given by N. See also:Schmidt, Hibbert Journal (See also:January 1908). (S. A.

End of Article: MIZRAIM

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