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nile Summary and Overview

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nile in Easton's Bible Dictionary

dark; blue, not found in Scripture, but frequently referred to in the Old Testament under the name of Sihor, i.e., "the black stream" (Isa. 23:3; Jer. 2:18) or simply "the river" (Gen. 41:1; Ex. 1:22, etc.) and the "flood of Egypt" (Amos 8:8). It consists of two rivers, the White Nile, which takes its rise in the Victoria Nyanza, and the Blue Nile, which rises in the Abyssinian Mountains. These unite at the town of Khartoum, whence it pursues its course for 1,800 miles, and falls into the Mediterranean through its two branches, into which it is divided a few miles north of Cairo, the Rosetta and the Damietta branch. (See EGYPT T0001137.)

nile in Smith's Bible Dictionary

(blue, dark), the great river of Egypt. The word Nile nowhere occurs in the Authorized Version but it is spoken of under the names of Sihor [SIHOR] and the "river of Egypt." #Ge 15:18| We cannot as yet determine the length of the Nile, although recent discoveries have narrowed the question. There is scarcely a doubt that its largest confluent is fed by the great lakes on and south of the equator. It has been traced upward for about 2700 miles, measured by its course, not in a direct line, and its extent is probably over 1000 miles more. (The course of the river has been traced for 3300 miles. For the first 1800 miles (McClintock and Strong say 2300) from its mouth it receives no tributary; but at Kartoom, the capital of Nubia, is the junction of the two great branches, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, so called from the color of the clay which tinges their waters. The Blue Nile rises in the mountains of Abyssinia and is the chief source of the deposit which the Nile brings to Egypt. The White Nile is the larger branch. Late travellers have found its source in Lake Victoria Nyanza, three degrees south of the equator. From this lake to the mouth of the Nile the distance is 2300 miles in a straight line --one eleventh the circumference of the globe. From the First Cataract, at Syene, the river flows smoothly at the rate of two or three miles an hour with a width of half a mile. to Cairo. A little north of Cairo it divides into two branches, one flowing to Rosetta and the other to Damietta, from which place the mouths are named. See Bartlett's "Egypt and Israel," 1879. The great peculiarity of the river is its annual overflow, caused by the periodical tropical rains. "With wonderful clock-like regularity the river begins to swell about the end of June, rises 24 feet at Cairo between the 20th and 30th of September and falls as much by the middle of May. Six feet higher than this is devastation; six feet lower is destitution." --Bartlett. So that the Nile increases one hundred days and decreases one hundred days, and the culmination scarcely varies three days from September 25 the autumnal equinox. Thus "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." As to the cause of the years of plenty and of famine in the time of Joseph, Mr. Osburn, in his "Monumental History of Egypt," thinks that the cause of the seven years of plenty was the bursting of the barriers (and gradually wearing them away) of "the great lake of Ethiopia," which once existed on the upper Nile, thus bringing more water and more sediment to lower Egypt for those years. And he shows how this same destruction of this immense sea would cause the absorption of the waters of the Nile over its dry bed for several years after thus causing the famine. There is another instance of a seven-years famine-A.D. 1064-1071.--ED.) The great difference between the Nile of Egypt in the present day and in ancient times is caused by the failure of some of its branches and the ceasing of some of its chief vegetable products; and the chief change in the aspect of the cultivable land, as dependent on the Nile, is the result of the ruin of the fish-pools and their conduits and the consequent decline of the fisheries. The river was famous for its seven branches, and under the Roman dominion eleven were counted, of which, however, there were but seven principal ones. The monuments and the narratives of ancient writers show us in the Nile of Egypt in old times a stream bordered By flags and reeds, the covert of abundant wild fowl, and bearing on its waters the fragrant flowers of the various-colored lotus. Now in Egypt scarcely any reeds or waterplants --the famous papyrus being nearly, if not quite extinct, and the lotus almost unknown--are to he seen, excepting in the marshes near the Mediterranean. Of old the great river must have shown a more fair and busy scene than now. Boats of many kinds were ever passing along it, by the painted walls of temples and the gardens that extended around the light summer pavilions, from the pleasure,valley, with one great square sail in pattern and many oars, to the little papyrus skiff dancing on the water and carrying the seekers of pleasure where they could shoot with arrows or knock down with the throw-stick the wild fowl that abounded among the reeds, or engage in the dangerous chase of the hippopotamus or the crocodile. The Nile is constantly before us in the history of Israel in Egypt.

nile in Schaff's Bible Dictionary

NILE (blue, dark), the great river of Egypt and of Africa, and probably the second longest river in the world, its entire length being estimated at 4000 miles. The word "Nile" does not occur in Scripture, but the river is frequently referred to as Sihor or Shihor, which means "black" or "turbid" stream. Josh 13:3; Isa 23:3; Jer 2:18; 1 Chr 13:5. It is also designated simply "the river," Gen 41:1; Ex 1:22; Num 2:3, 1 Chr 6:5, and the "flood of Egypt." Am 8:8; Neh 9:5. In the plural form this word year, rendered "river," frequently refers to the branches and canals of the Nile. This famous river is connected with the earliest history of the Egyptian and the Israelitish nations. Ex 2:3; Ex 7:20-21; Num 11:5; Ps 105:29; Jer 46:7-8; Zech 14:17-18. The Nile is not named in the N.T. Physical Features. - The discovery of the true source of the Nile, and the reason for its annual overflow, are two scientific problems which have been discussed for upward of 2000 years. The course of the stream is now known for about 3300 miles, and with two interruptions - the cataract of Syene (Assouan) and the Upper Cataract - it is claimed by Baedeker's Handbook on Lower Egypt to be navigable throughout nearly the whole of that distance. But as there are many other cataracts, this statement cannot be correct. The principal stream is now known to be the White Nile, while the Blue or Black Nile is of greater importance in contributing to the annual inundation of the lower river. The two streams unite at the town of Khartoom, the capital of Nubia, and from this point to the mouths of the stream at Damietta and Rosetta, upward of 1800 miles, it falls 1240 feet, and attains its greatest width a little below Khartoom and a little above Cairo, at each of which places it is about 1100 yards wide. The source of the White Nile is doubtless Lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest part of which lies south of the equator, and from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea. The White Nile is so named from the color of the clay with which its waters are stained. The Blue Nile resembles a mountain-torrent, being liable to rise suddenly with the Abyssinian rains and sweep away whatever it encounters in its rapidly-descending course. The source of the Blue Nile is high up in the Abyssinian mountains, from 6000 to 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and in springs which are regarded with superstitious veneration by the neighboring people. The river causes what would be otherwise a barren valley to be one of the most fertile regions in the world. Hence, Herodotus justly calls Egypt "an acquired country and the gift of the Nile." The waters of the Nile now empty into the sea through two streams, known as the Damietta and the Rosetta mouths; ancient writers, however, mention at least seven branches or mouths through which the Nile found its way to the sea. There is the strongest proof that the Nile has filled up the sea for many miles to the north, and that its ancient mouths were several miles farther south. It has been ascertained that within the last half century the mouth of the Nile has advanced northward 4 miles, and the maps of Ptolemy, of the second and third centuries of the Christian era, show that the mouth was then about 40 miles farther south than at present. Hence, at this rate of deposit, the sea-coast, in the earlier history of ancient Egypt, must have been nearly as far south as its ancient capital, Memphis. As rain seldom falls in Egypt proper, the fertility of "the country is entirely dependent upon the annual rise of the Nile. This usually begins in June and continues until near the end of September, the river remaining stationary for two or more weeks, and then attaining its highest level in October, when it begins to subside. "The height of the inundation most favorable for agriculture at the present day has been ascertained by long observation to be 23 cubits 2 inches - i.e., about 41 feet 2 inches, the cubit being 21 inches - while in the time of Herodotus 16 cubits sufficed; and the god of the Nile in the Vatican is therefore represented as surrounded by sixteen children. A single cubit more is apt to cause terrible devastation in the Delta, and elsewhere cover the fields destined for the autumn crop, while a deficiency of 2 cubits causes drought and famine in Upper Egypt," (See Baedeker's Lower Egypt.) The successive years of famine in the days of Joseph were doubtless due to a deficient overflow of the Nile for those years. Formerly this annual inundation turned Egypt into a vast lake, but in later times the water has been distributed by a great network of canals, from which the huge basins of cultivated land into which the canals divide the country, are supplied with water of the depth required to leave a deposit of mud to fertilize the land. The native uses his feet to regulate the flow of water into each of the squares or basins of land, and by a dexterous movement of his toes forms or removes a tiny embankment, as may be required to admit the proper flow of water. Another common mode is to use The Shadoof. the "shadoof," a bucket attached to a long pole hung on a pivot, balanced by a stone or a lump of clay at one end, and having the bucket on the other end. To this day the Nile is lined for hundreds of miles with these shadoofs, worked by men, women, and children, who lift the water out of the river to irrigate their fields. Both these methods are believed to be very ancient, and may be alluded to by Moses in contrasting the fountains and rainfalls in Palestine with the absence of this supply in Egypt: "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs." Deut 11:10-11. A number of festivals were celebrated in connection with the annual rise of the Nile, which appear from the monuments to have been common as early as the fourteenth The Nilometer. century b.c. The height of the Nile was measured by the Nilometer, a square well having in its centre an octagonal column, on which were inscribed the ancient Arabic measures and Cufic inscriptions. This was erected in a.d. 716, and was used to determine the height of the overflow, upon which was based the rate of taxation. The government, however, cheated the poor people by false statements of the overflow, indicated by this measurement. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the river Nile as a god. Two of the ten plagues sent upon Pharaoh and Egypt before the departure of the Israelites were turning the water of the Nile into blood and bringing forth frogs from the river. Ex 7:15-25; Ex 8:3-7. The papyrus reeds - whence paper is designated - the flags, the lotus, and the various colored flowers formerly beautifying the banks of the river have nearly all disappeared, thus fulfilling prophecy. Isa 19:6-7. This river, so intimately associated with the early history of the human race, is a favorite resort for tourists, who can go in steamers as far as the First Cataract, near Assouan (Syene), where were the great quarries which supplied stone for ancient Egyptian monuments, and from Phiae up to Aboo-Simbel and the Second Cataract. The Nile voyage, broken by donkey rides and visits to the pyramids, tombs, and ruins of temples and palaces of the Pharaohs, is one of the greatest enjoyments and best recreations of body and mind.

nile in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Not so named in the Bible; related to Sanskrit Nilah, "blue." The Nile has two names: the sacred name Hapi, or Hapi-mu, "the abyss of waters," Hp-ro-mu, "the waters whose source is hidden"; and the common name Yeor Aor, Aur (Atur): both Egyptian names. Shihor, "the black river," is its other Bible name, Greek Melas or Kmelas, Latin Melo, darkened by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its overflow (Jeremiah 2:18). The hieroglyphic name of Egypt is Kam, "black." Egyptians distinguished between Hapi-res, the "southern Nile" of Upper Egypt, and Hapi-meheet, the "northern Nile" of Lower Egypt. Hapi-ur, "the high Nile," fertilizes the land; the Nile low brought famine. The Nile god is painted red to represent the inundation, but blue at other times. An impersonation of Noah (Osburn). Famine and plenty are truly represented as coming up out of the river in Pharaoh's dream (Genesis 41). Therefore they worshipped it, and the plague on its waters, was a judgment on that idolatry (Exodus 7:21; Psalm 105:29). (See EGYPT; EXODUS.) The rise begins at the summer solstice; the flood is two months later, after the autumnal equinox, at its height pouring through cuttings in the banks which are higher than the rest of the soil and covering the valley, and lasting three months. (Amos 8:8; Amos 9:5; Isaiah 23:3). The appointed S.W. bound of Israel (Joshua 13:3; 1 Chronicles 13:5; 2 Chronicles 9:26; Genesis 15:18). 1 Kings 8:65 "stream" (nachal, not "river".) Its confluent is still called the Blue river; so Nilah means "darkblue," or "black." The plural "rivers" is used for the different mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile. The tributaries are further up than Egypt (Psalm 78:44; Exodus 7:18-20; Isaiah 7:18; Isaiah 19:6; Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 30:12). "The stream (nachal) of Egypt" seems distinct (Isaiah 27:12), now "wady el Arish" (where was the frontier city Rhino-corura) on the confines of Israel and Egypt (Joshua 15:4; Joshua 15:47, where for "river" should stand "stream," nachal)). Smith's Bible Dictionary suggests that nachal) is related to the Nile and is that river; but the distinctness with which nachal) is mentioned, and not as elsewhere Sihor, or "river," Ye'or, forbids the identification. "The rivers of Ethiopia" (Isaiah 18:1-2), Cush, are the Atbara, the Astapus or Blue river, between which two rivers Meroe (the Ethiopia meant in Isaiah 18) lies, and the Astaboras or White Nile; these rivers conjoin in the one Nile, and wash down the soil along their banks from Upper Egypt, and deposit it on Lower Egypt; compare "whose land (Upper Egypt) the rivers have spoiled" or "cut up" or "divided." The Nile is called "the sea" (Isaiah 19:5), for it looks a sea at the overflow; the Egyptians still call it El Bahr "the sea" (Nahum 3:8). Its length measured by its course is probably 3,700 miles, the longest in the world. Its bed is cut through layers of nummulitic limestone (of which the pyramids of Ghizeh are built, full of nummulites, which the Arabs call "Pharaoh's beans"), sandstone under that, breccia verde under that, azoic rocks still lower, with red granite and syenite rising through all the upper strata at the first cataract. Sir Samuel Baker has traced its (the White Nile's) source up to the Tanganyika, Victoria, and Albert Nyanza lakes, filled with the melting snows from the mountains and the periodical equatorial heavy rains. The Hindus call its source Amana, the name of a region N.E. of the Nyanza. The shorter confluent, the Blue river, is what brings down from the Abyssinian mountains the alluvial soil that fertilizes Egypt. The two join at Khartoom, the capital of Soodan, the black country under Egypt's rule. The Atbara falls into the main stream further N. The river thenceforth for 2,300 miles receives no tributary. Through the breaking down of a barrier at Silsilis or at the first cataract, the river is so much below the level of the valley in lower Nubia that it does not overflow on the land. On the confines of Upper Egypt it forms two cataracts, the lower near Syene. Thence it runs 500 miles onward. A short way below Cairo and the pyramids it parts into two branches, bounding the Delta E. and W. and falling into the Mediterranean. Always diffusing its waters, and never receiving any accession of water from sky or tributary, its volume at Cairo is but half what it is at the cataract of Syene. The water is sweet, especially when turbid. Stagnant waters left by the overflow in Nubia's sandy flats are carried into the Nile by the new overflow, thus the water is at first a green shiny color and unwholesome for two or three days. Twelve days later it becomes red like blood, and is then most wholesome and refreshing; and all living beings, men, beasts, birds, fish, and insects are gladdened by its advent. Egypt having only a little rain (Zechariah 14:17-18) depends on the Nile for its harvests; see in Deuteronomy 11:10-12 the contrast to the promised land, where the husbandman has to look up to heaven for rain instead of looking down, irrigating the land. with watercourses turned by the foot as in Egypt (a type of the spiritual state of the two respectively), and where Jehovah's eyes are upon it from the beginning to the end of the year. The waters reach their lowest in nine months groin their highest point in the autumn equinox; they remain stationary for a few days and then begin to rise again. If they reach no higher than 22 ft. at the island Rhoda, between Cairo and Ghizeh, where a nilometer is kept, the rise is insufficient; if 27, good; if more, the flood injures the crops, and plague and murrain ensue. The further S. one goes, the earlier the inundation begins; at Khartoom as early as April. The seven years' famine under Joseph is confirmed by the seven years' famine in the reign of Fatimee Khaleefeh El-Mustansir bi-'llah, owing to the failure of water. The universal irrigation maintained, even during the low season of the Nile, made the results of failure of its waters more disastrous then than now. The mean rise above the lowest level registered at Semne, near the second cataract, in Moeris' reign, 2000 B.C., was 62 ft. 6 inches, i.e. 23 ft. 10 inches above the present rise which is 38 ft. 8 inches (Lepsius in the Imperial Dictionary) The average rate of deposit in Egypt now is four and a half inches in the century. But other causes were at work formerly; the danger of inferences as to man's antiquity from such data is amusingly illustrated by Homer's (Philippians Transac. 148) inference from pottery found at a great depth that man must have lived there in civilization 13,000 years ago, which Bunsen accepted! Unfortunately for the theory the Greek honeysuckle was found on some of it. The burnt brick still lower, on which he laid stress, was itself enough to have confuted him, for burnt brick was first introduced into Egypt under Rome (see Quarterly Revue, April, 1859). Champollion holds no Egyptian monument to be older than 2,200 B.C. In Upper Egypt bore yellow mountains, a few hundred feet high, and pierced with numerous tombs, bound the N. on both sides; this gives point to Israel's sneer, "because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" (Exodus 14:11). In Lower Egypt the land spreads out on either side of the Nile in a plain bounded E. and W. by the desert. At the inundation the Nile rushes along in a mighty torrent, made to appear more violent by the waves which the N. wind, blowing continually then, raises up (Jeremiah 46:7-8). Two alone of the seven noted branches of the mouth (of which the Pelusiac was the most eastern) remain, the Damietta (Phanitic) and Rosetta (Bolbitine) mouths, originally artificial (Herodotus ii. 10), fulfilling Isaiah 19:5 and probably Isaiah 11:11-15; Ezekiel 30:12. The Nile in the numerous canals besides the river itself formerly "abounded with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish" (Diodorus Siculus i.; Numbers 11:5). These too, as foretold (Isaiah 19:8-10), have failed except about lake Menzaleh. So also the papyrus reeds, from whence paper receives its designation, flags, reeds, and the lotus with its fragrant and various colored flowers, have almost disappeared as foretold (Isaiah 19:6-7), the papyrus boats no more skim its surface (Isaiah 18:2).