According to Herodotus,[208] Apries (Hophra) was defeated and imprisoned by his successor Amasis, afterwards delivered up by him to the people of Egypt, who forthwith strangled their former king. This event would be an exact fulfilment of the words, "I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life,"[209] if it were not evident from parallel passages[210] that the Book of Jeremiah intends Nebuchadnezzar to be the enemy into whose hands Pharaoh is to be delivered. But Herodotus is entirely silent as to the relations of Egypt and Babylon during this period; for instance, he mentions the victory of Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo--which he miscalls Magdolium--but not his defeat at Carchemish. Hence his silence as to Chaldean conquests in Egypt has little weight. Even the historian's explicit statement as to the death of Apries might be reconciled with his defeat and capture by Nebuchadnezzar, if we knew all the facts. At present, however, the inscriptions do little to fill the gap left by the Greek historian; there are, however, references which seem to establish two invasions of Egypt by the Chaldean king, one of which fell in the reign of Pharaoh Hophra. But the spiritual lessons of this and the following prophecies concerning the nations are not dependent on the spade of the excavator or the skill of the decipherers of hieroglyphics and cuneiform script; whatever their relation may be to the details of subsequent historical events, they remain as monuments of the inspired insight of the prophet into the character and destiny alike of great empires and petty states. They assert the Divine government of the nations, and the subordination of all history to the coming of the Kingdom of God. FOOTNOTES: [200] Second edition, ii. 291, 292. [201] Meyer, _Geschichte des alten Ägypten_, 371, 373. [202] ii. 293. [203] Giesebrecht, with LXX. [204] Giesebrecht, Orelli, Kautzsch, with LXX., Syr., and Vulg., by an alteration of the pointing. [205] LXX. omits verse 26. Verses 27, 28 = xxx. 10, 11, and probably are an insertion here. [206] Ezek. xxix. 13-15. [207] Isa. xix. 25. [208] Herodotus, II. clxix. [209] xliv. 30. [210] xlvi. 25. CHAPTER XVIII _THE PHILISTINES_ xlvii. "O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."--JER. xlvii. 6.