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says, "The reign of Cephrenes, so late as B.C. 1032, is corrected from a rectification of Syncellus's Catalogue, explained before. This date, combined with his long reign of fifty-six years, according to Herodotus, intimates, that he could be no other than the Sesac, or Shishak of Scripture, now, for the first time, determined in the present system of chronology, after having been so long misunderstood, from the days of Josephus to those of Marsham and Newton."

One circumstance, namely, that Herodotus did not identify Sesostris with Shishak, is greatly in favour of this conclusion; but there is a great degree of uncertainty in the identification of Cephrenes with Shishak, inasmuch as Manetho places him, like Cheops, among the earliest of the Pharaohs. Without, therefore, identifying Shishak with either Sesostris or Cephrenes, here may be presented to the reader what is found in the sacred page concerning that monarch, under his scripture name of

SHISHAK.

It is said, 2 Chron. xii. 2-12, "And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims," (probably the Libyans,) "the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hands of Shishak. Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The Lord is righteous. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all he carried

away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house. And when the king

entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well." See also 1 Kings xiv. 25—28.

It is thought by some, that the invasion of Judah by Shishak was at the instigation of Jeroboam, who had previously resided at the Egyptian monarch's court, and had married his daughter. It is probable, that this first king of Israel was immediately connected with the transaction; for the ten tribes over whom he reigned were in alliance with Shishak, and, at this date, in determined hostility towards the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as appears from I Kings xii. The interest and security, therefore, of Jeroboam, seemed to require that the king of Judah, his rival, should be humbled by a foreign and superior power. The chastisement, however, as intimated by the sacred writer, came from the hands of the Almighty; and the narrative shows how jealous the Lord is of his own honour; how merciful he is to the repentant, and how kind in warning the creatures of his hands against straying from his fold. His design was, to restore Judah from the error of their ways; that effected, his anger ceased, and the Egyptians returned to their own land.

It may be mentioned, that the Shishak of Scripture is identified by Champollion and others with Sesonchis, according to Manetho, and Sheshonk, according to the Phonetic signs. The latter name, with the title, confirmed by Ammon, appears on one of the columns of the first grand peristyle in the palace of Karnac. Among the sculptured ornaments of this palace, the personage thus named is represented as dragging to the feet of his gods the chiefs of thirty conquered nations; and it is remarkable, that there is one whose distinguishing hieroglyphic inscription is equivalent in Phonetic value to Jouda-ha-melek, meaning the king of the Jews, or of Judah. The names of the kingdom of Judah, and of several towns on the Egyptian frontier of Judah, Megiddo, Beth-horon, etc., occur in the list of his conquests. It may be inferred, therefore, that the triumphant scene commemorates, among many others, that recorded in the sacred writings, and as such it is highly interesting.

VOL. I.

12

MYCERINUS.

This monarch is represented as the son of Cheops, and, therefore, advanced in years when he ascended the throne. Mycerinus was reckoned the builder of the third pyramid, which is represented by Herodotus as superior to the others in costliness of materials and excellence of workmanship, though inferior in size. But this structure could not possibly have been built within so short a period, which is a proof of the fallacy of the statements made by the priests of Egypt concerning the pyramids, and the monarchs during this period. Of Mycerinus they have reported that his character was the reverse of that of his father. So far from walking in his steps, he detested his conduct, and pursued opposite measures. He again opened the temples of the gods, restored the sacrifices, and did all that lay in his power to comfort his subjects, and make them forget their past miseries. He believed himself set over them for no other purpose but to exercise justice, and to administer to them the blessings of an equitable and peaceful administration. He heard their complaints, dried their tears, alleviated their misery, and considered himself the father of his people. This conduct procured for him the love and esteem of all his subjects; Egypt, it is said, resounded with his praises, and his name commanded veneration in distant lands.

This prudent and humane conduct did not exempt Mycerinus from calamity. Herodotus says, that his misfortunes commenced with the death of a beloved and only daughter, in whom his chief felicity consisted. He ordered extraordinary honours to be paid to her memory, which were continued in this historian's days; for he states, that in the city of Sais, exquisite odours were burned in the day time at the tomb of the princess, and that during the night a lamp was kept constantly burning. Her body is said to have been enclosed in a heifer, made of wood, and richly ornamented with gold.

After this, Mycerinus met with another calamity. He was informed by the oracle of Buto that his reign would continue but seven years, and upon complaining of this to the gods, and inquiring the reason why so long and prosperous a reign had been granted both to his uncle and father, who were equally cruel and impious, whilst his own, which he had endeavoured to render equitable and mild, should be so short and unhappy? he was answered, that these were the causes of it; it being the will of the gods to afflict Egypt during the space of one hun

dred and fifty years, as a punishment for its crimes; and that his reign, which was to have been, like those of the preceding monarchs, of fifty years' continuance, was shortened on account of his overmuch lenity. But all this bears upon the face of it the stamp of fiction; for Mycerinus being an aged man when he ascended the throne of Egypt, it could not be supposed, that, in the common course of nature, he should reign as long as Cheops or Cephrenes. It is probable that Mycerinus reigned about ten years.

The immediate successor of Mycerinus is uncertain. Herodotus asserts it was Asychis, who appears to have been a Memphite. Diodorus, however, introduces the names of Tnephachthus, or, as Plutarch calls him, Technatis, and hist son Bocchoris, both of whom are omitted by Herodotus, as Asychis and Anysis are in his catalogue of kings.

TNEPHACHTHUS.

This prince is only known as being the father of Bocchoris, and as having led an expedition into Arabia, where he endured great privations, owing to the loss of his baggage in this inhospitable country. Being obliged to put up with poor and slender diet, and finding his sleep in consequence more sound and refreshing, he felt persuaded of the ill effect resulting from luxury, and was resolved on his return to Thebes to record his abhorrence of the conduct of Menes, who had induced the Egyptians to abandon their frugal and simple habits. Accordingly, he erected a stela, with an inscription to that purpose, in the temple of Amun at Thebes, where his son also made considerable additions to the sacred buildings dedicated to the deity. This stela, or tablet, cannot now be discovered in any of the ruins of Thebes, and the truth of this statement may, therefore, perhaps, be questioned.

CCHORIS.

This prince is the Bakhor or Pehor of the Phonetic signs, who reigned about 312 B. C. He is represented to have been despicable in his person, but the qualities of his mind fully compensated for any imperfections of the body; for according to Diodorus, he excelled all his predecessors in wisdom or prudence, whence he obtained the surname of "the wise."

It is supposed by some that Bocchoris is mentioned by

Herodotus under the name of Asychis, of which monarch, that historian relates, that he enacted the law relative to loans, which forbade a son to borrow money, without giving the dead body of his father by way of security, as explained page 28. Herodotus states, also, that Asychis prided himself in having surpassed all his predecessors, by the building of a pyramid of brick, more magnificent than any hitherto erected, with this inscription engraved on a marble slab: "Compare me not with the stone pyramids, for I am as superior to them as Jove is to the other gods. Thus was I made: men probing with poles the bottom of a lake drew forth the mud which adhered to them, and formed it into bricks."

Bocchoris is reputed to have been one of the Egyptian lawgivers, and in this capacity to have introduced many useful regulations in the ancient code respecting debt and fiscal matters; but some have imagined that his care of the revenue proceeded from avarice, rather than from a desire to benefit the state. So high, says Plutarch, was the veneration his subjects paid him, that they fabled Isis to have sent an asp to deprive him of his sight, that he might judge righteously.

Diodorus places a long period between his reign and that of Sabacos the Ethiopian, who, however, follows him next but one in the Phonetic chronology and in that of Manetho, which is most likely to be correct in this particular. The monarch who intervened between Bocchoris and Sabaco, was, according to Dr. Hales and other chronologers,

ANYSIS,

who, Herodotus says, was blind; and who had only reigned two years when Sabacos invaded Egypt, and drove him into the fens. It is agreed on all hands that the Sabacos of Herodotus was the So of Scripture, whose aid was implored by Hoshea king of Israel, against Shalmaneser king of Assyria, about 726 years B. C. Sabacos ruled in Egypt with great justice and moderation about fifty years: he resigned the throne in obedience to an oracle, and returned to Abyssinia. Dr. Hales conjectures that the true cause of his leaving Egypt was the apprehension of an Assyrian war, which it is probable he had in the first instance sought to avert, by prompt ing Hoshea to rebel against Shalmaneser. It is said that Sabacos built several magnificent temples, and among the rest, one in the city of Bubastis, of which a copious and elegant description is given by Herodotus. After Sabacos had re

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