Ancient Tahpanhes by E. J. Bryant

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 32.

Ancient Tahpanhes.

By E. J. Bryant

To LOVERS of Bible history, a singular and interesting ruin has recently been discovered in Egypt, no less a place than the ruins of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, where the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln [or as the Revised Version has it, “hide them in mortar in the brick-work”], which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.” Jer. 43 : 8-10.

An Egyptian explorer, Mr. Flinders Petrie by name, traveling in the northwestern delta of the Nile, came to several mounds, of which the largest of the group, being covered with burned brick, and apparently of huge dimensions, was known by the Arabs as El Kasr el Bint el Yahudi, which means, the castle of the Jew’s daughter. When Zedekiah was a prisoner in Babylon, the chief men who had charge in Jerusalem, being much afraid that Nebuchadrezzar would again return and destroy and kill them, asked permission of the king of Egypt to go down and dwell in his country. Pharaoh appointed them the royal stronghold, or palace of Tahpanhes, and there accordingly went the chief captains of the forces, taking with them the king’s daughters and the remnant of Judah, amongst whom likewise was the prophet Jeremiah, who, by the express command of the Lord, had strongly protested against the proceeding, but without avail.

After much labor and repeated trenching, Mr. Petrie found an area of brick-work 100x60 feet facing the eastern entrance of this ancient palace, and as this readily answers the brick-work spoken of in the above-quoted verse, what more probable than that Nebuchadrezzar spread his royal pavilion on that very spot, indeed, Egyptian inscriptions identifying it as the place where he had spread his royal pavilion. What is more sure and abiding than the word of the Lord; and as another and another confirmation of the word of our God is revealed, our faith and hope should grow brighter and clearer, and may we be able to realize more and more that all these things are for our edification upon whom the ends of the world have come.

E. J. BRYANT.