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Major 1: Scott Phillips wrote a small book entitled "Approximations of Prophecy" in
which he developed the idea which stimulated our own search and is to some extent the
basis of this article. It will be seen that the book was published in the year following
concession to de Lesseps to begin the Suez Canal. No reference, of course, to this canal
is found in the book, as it was not then in existence. Major Phillips was concerned with
a mightier "canal" that shall enrich Jerusalem and heal the Dead Sea. In his map he
quotes the reference given above to the smiting of the river into seven streams, and places
the citation across the delta of the Nile. With this, however, we are not able to agree.
The word yeor is usually the word found in the original when the reference is to the Nile,
while the word "The River" without qualifications (usually the Hebrew Naharas as in
Isa. 11: 15) generally refers to the Euphrates. The R.V. makes two alterations:--
(1)
The word "River" is printed with a capital "R" indicating the Euphrates.
(2)
The words "Smite it into seven streams" are translated as though the river
Euphrates were to be subdivided into smaller streams.
The object is that there may be a highway "from Assyria" and "like . . . . . Egypt"--
which would not be intelligible if the Delta of the Nile had been intended. The exodus
from Egypt underlies many of the prophecies of Israel's final restoration (cf. Isa. 9: 11;
Jer. 31: 31, 32; Exod. 34: 10). The "smiting" of the river in Isa. 11: 15 corresponds
with the "smiting" of the "wicked one" in verse 4 of the same chapter.
In our article referring to the nations at the time of the end we cited "The burden of
Egypt" from Isa. 19: We paid little or no attention at the time to the lengthy reference
that is made to an extraordinary failure of the Nile. We must now consider this point:--
"And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and become dry.
And the rivers shall stink; the canals of Egypt shall be minished and dried up . . . . . the
fishers also shall lament" (Isa. 19: 5-8).
At the end of this chapter is another reference to the "highway", not only out of
Assyria as stated in chapter 11:, but also out of Egypt (as implied in chapter 11: by the
reference to the tongue of the Egyptian sea).
The drying up of the sea, and the making of the rivers into a wilderness is referred to
once again in Isa. 50: 2.
Judgment is to fall upon Egypt, and in Ezek. 29: we read:--
"Behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt
an utter waste and desolation from MIGDOL to SYENE, and even unto the border of
Ethiopia" (Ezek. 29: 10 R.V. margin).
The word translated "tower" in the A.V. is Migdol, the name of the city mentioned in
Exod. 14: 2. If the reader will turn to the map given on page 2 he will see that Migdol is
vertically above Syene, which is now called Asouan.