The princes of Zoan are become fools
Or infatuated, in their counsels to Pharaoh, and by giving heed
to the magicians and diviners; (See Gill on Isaiah
19:11): the princes of Noph are
deceived;
called Moph, in ( Hosea 9:6 ) where our
translation renders it Memphis; and so do the Septuagint and
Vulgate Latin versions here; the Arabic version has it Menphis;
the Syriac version Mophis; and the Targum Mephes; the city of
Memphis is no doubt intended, which was the chief of the first of
the nomes or provinces of Egypt, from whence it was called
Memphites: it was the metropolis of upper Egypt, and the seat of
their kings and princes; it was built by their first king Menes
F20, or Mizraim, and had in it the
famous temple of Vulcan; it continues to this day, and goes by
the name of Alkair, or Grand Cairo: they have also seduced
Egypt;
the princes of the above places, being deceived themselves by the
diviners and astrologers, deceived the common people that
inhabited the nomes and provinces where they dwelt; it being
usual with such to follow their superiors in principle and
practice: [even they that are] the stay of the tribes
thereof;
or, "who are the corner of its tribes" F21;
meaning the nomes or provinces of Egypt, especially the Tanitic
and Memphitic nomes, whose provinces are mentioned; these are
called tribes by the prophet, in the language of the Jews, which
land were divided into tribes, as the land of Egypt was divided
into nomes; and about this time it was divided into twelve
kingdoms, as Israel was into twelve tribes: now, the princes of
these tribes and kingdoms, who should have been as cornerstones,
to which civil magistrates are compared, see ( Psalms
118:22 ) ( Zechariah
10:4 ) the stay and support of the people, and should have
kept them right, these led them wrong, into mistakes and errors.