Again, Ezekiel says,[250] “And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.”--“In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships, to make the careless Ethiopians afraid.” Now, Nebuchadnezzar was to destroy Egypt[251], from the frontiers of Palestine, to the mountains above Atbara, where the Cushite dwelt. Between this and Egypt is a great desert; the country beyond it, and on both sides, was possessed by half a million of men. The Cushite, or negro merchant, was secure under these circumstances from any insult by land, but they were open to the sea, and had no defender, and messengers, therefore, in ships or a fleet had easy access to them, to alarm and keep them at home, that they did not fall into danger by marching into Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar, or interrupting the service upon which God had sent him. But this does not appear from translating Cush, _Ethiopian_; the nearest Ethiopian to Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful and capable of opposing him, were the Ethiopian shepherds of the Thebaid, and these were not accessible to ships; and the shepherds, so posted near to the scene of destruction to be committed by Nebuchadnezzar, were enemies to the Cushites living in towns, and they had repeatedly themselves destroyed them, and therefore had no temptation to be other than spectators. In several other places, the same prophet speaks of Cush as the commercial nation, sympathising with their countrymen dwelling in the towns in Egypt, independent of the shepherds, who were really their enemies, both in civil and religious matters. “And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt[252].” Now Ethiopia, as I have before said, that is, the low country of the shepherds, nearest Egypt, had no common cause with the Cushites that lived in towns there; it was their countrymen, the Cushites in Ethiopia, who mourned for those that fell in Egypt, who were merchants, traders, and dwelt in cities like themselves. I shall mention but one instance more: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?[253]” Here Cush is rendered Ethiopian, and many Ethiopians being white, it does not appear why they should be fixed upon, or chosen for the question more than other people. But had Cush been translated Negro, or Black-moor, the question would have been very easily understood, Can the negro change his skin, or the leopard his spots?