a Hamitic tribe descended from Mizraim ( Genesis 10:13 ). Others identify this word with Napata, the name of the city and territory on the southern frontier of Mizraim, the modern Meroe, at the great bend of the Nile at Soudan. This city was the royal residence, it is said, of Queen Candace ( Acts 8:27 ). Here there are extensive and splendid ruins.
(border-people ), a Mizraite (Egyptian) nation or tribe mentioned only in the account of the descendants of Noah. ( Genesis 10:13 ; 1 Chronicles 1:11 ) If we may judge from their position in the list Of the Mizraites, the Naphtuhim were possibly settled, at first, either in Egypt or immediately to the west of it.
NAPHTUHIM
naf-tu'-him (naphtuchim; Septuagint Nephthaleim):
A son of Mizraim (Genesis 10:13; 1 Chronicles 1:11); but, according to most modern authorities, a district or a dependency of Egypt. Among the many efforts at identification the following deserve notice: Naphtuhim equals (1) Nephthys (Nephthus) in the Northeast of Egypt; (2) Na-ptah, i.e. the people of Ptah, the dwellers in the neighborhood of Memphis; (3) Nathu (according to Herodotus, Natho), which occurs in Assurbanipal's Annals as the name of a part of Lower Egypt; (4) Erman (ZATW, X, 118), by the change of a letter, reads Petemhim, which signifies "The Northland"; (5) Spiegelberg sees in the word an old designation of the Delta, and would therefore render the name, "the people of the Delta" (compare Johns, HDB; Skinner and Holzinger on Genesis).
John A. Lees
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