No

Narrator: Chris Genthree

• 1 min. read • grade level: 13

Ruins at Karnak, Thebes

This is the scripture name of THEBES, a noted city in Egypt, built on both sides of the river Nile, having a hundred gates, situate about 25° 46' N. Its position is alluded to in Nahum 3:8-10,⁸Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? ⁹Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. ¹⁰Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. (Nahum 3:8‑10) where the Nile is called “the sea,” and “the rivers” refer to the canals. Instead of “populous No,” “No of Amon” should be read, referring to the Egyptian god Amon; and in Jeremiah 46:25²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: (Jeremiah 46:25) for “the multitude of No,” “Amon of No” should be read.

The passage in Nahum refers to some past desolation. Assyria had been able to distress Egypt before this prophecy, and the reference there is probably to an attack on Egypt by Sargon, B.C. 722-705 (Compare Isa. 20:1-5¹In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; ²At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. ³And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; ⁴So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. (Isaiah 20:1‑5)). The account in Jeremiah 46 speaks of the city being delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, though afterward it should be inhabited as in days of old. God’s judgments on the city are also foretold in Ezekiel 30:14-16¹⁴And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. ¹⁵And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. ¹⁶And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily. (Ezekiel 30:14‑16). Nebuchadnezzar overran Egypt in B.C. 581, and in 526 Cambyses conquered it.

The perishable nature of human greatness is evidenced in a striking manner in Egypt by miserable huts being in close proximity to ruins of colossal buildings, which could have been reared only at the cost of immense labor, and the exercise of much skill.

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