or River of Egypt. aj 



us, that in ihofe 'Deferts, there was a dreadful want of Water ^ 

 (;^^ciploy avyJ^o'v '^ ^ixmi) to the "D'ljlance of three Days Journey from 

 Mount Caffius or the Sirhonic Lake. Straho ' likewife acquaints 

 us, that the whole Country betwixt Gaza and the Sirhonic 

 Lakey was \rj^^ ^ k^JLixUr^i, barren and Sandy. It is likewife 

 very probable, in fo great a Diftrefs as this for Water, that, 

 had there been, during the rainy Seafon, any Torrent or occa- 

 fional Stream running by it, the Inhabitants would rather have 

 imitated their Neighbours the Egyptians., m building themfelves 

 Cifterns for the Reception of this annual Supply of good Wa- 

 ter, than have been reduced to the Neceffity of digging them- 

 felves Wells, for the obtaining of bad. There appears then to 

 be little Reafon for fixing fo remarkable a Boundary, as that 

 of the Holy Land, in a wild open Defert ; which had neither 

 City, River, Torrent, or, as far as we know, any remarkable 

 Landmark to diftinguifh it. 



But this Gentleman perhaps may call in to his AfTiftance the^ The lxx 

 Authority of the Septuagint Version ; which inftead of D'ni^a hni'^'^ «f J; 

 Nahal Mitzraim^ The River of Egypt, Ifi^. ii. (as it is in,f='f'^'i 

 and as we render it Verhatim from the Hebrew Text,) has 

 Pivoxopoyp(S)-, or Rhinocorura. Now as Rhinocorura, at the Time 

 of this Verlion, was a Place of great Note andTraffick, under 

 the Jurifdi6lion of the Egyptian Kings ; the Tranflators perhaps 

 might fancy it to have been always under the like flourifliing 

 Condition and Dependance ; and, as it was then, fo they might 

 conclude it to have been, in the Time o^JofJjua, a Frontier 

 City oi Egypt, and as fuch to have conftituted the Boundary 

 we are difputing. Yet whether this, or fome intended Com- 

 pliment to the Ttolemies, or what Reafon foever it might be, 

 that induced the LXX. to tranH^te Nahal Mitzraim,hy Rhino- 

 corura, in this Text; the fame furely, had it been juft and 

 well-grounded, fhould have engaged them to have preferved 

 the like Appellation in others. Whereas, inftead of keeping J"^'i/jf°^^'^ 

 up to one uniform Tranflation of Nahal Mitzraim, they fome- JyJ^if^^®' 

 times render it **£9ty^ AiV-TTTV, the Gulph of Egypt', yojh.if. 4-. 

 Sometimes Uota/^Q- MyuTttsi, the River of Egypt', i Kin. 8. 65-. 

 Gen. IS' 18. Sometimes XtiVpp©- AiV^rry, thQ Torrent of Egypt', 



I Strab. p. f22. 



F X a Chron, 



