r again sat down before Jerusalem, took and burnt it, as
Jeremiah had prophesied.

(M94) Many years after, the chastisements with which God had threatened
Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra) began to fall upon him.(484) For the Cyrenians, a
Greek colony, which had settled in Africa, between Libya and Egypt, having
seized upon, and divided among themselves, a great part of the country
belonging to the Libyans, forced these nations, who were thus dispossessed
by violence, to throw themselves into the arms of this prince, and implore
his protection. Immediately Apries sent a mighty army into Libya to oppose
the Cyrenians; but this army being defeated and almost cut to pieces, the
Egyptians imagined that Apries had sent it into Libya, only to get it
destroyed; and by that means to attain the power of governing his subjects
without check or control. This reflection prompted the Egyptians to shake
off the yoke of a prince, whom they now considered as their enemy. But
Apries, hearing of the rebellion, despatched Amasis, one of his officers,
to suppress it, and force the rebels to return to their allegiance. But
the moment Amasis began to address them, they placed a helmet upon his
head, in token of the exalted dignity to which they intended to raise him,
and proclaimed him king. Amasis having accepted the crown, staid with the
mutineers, and confirmed them in their rebellion.

Apries, more exasperated than ever at this news, sent Patarbemis, another
of his great officers, and one of the principal lords of his court, to put
Amasis under an arrest, and bring him before him; but Patarbemis not being
able to carry off Amasis from the midst of the rebel army, by which he was
surrounded, was treated by Apries, at his return, in the most ignominious
and inhuman manner; for his nose and ears were cut off by the command of
that prince, who never considered, that only his want of power had
prevented his executing his commission. So barbarous an outrage, committed
upon a person of such high distinction, exasperated the Egyptians so much,
that the greatest part of them joined the rebels, and the insurrection
became general. Apries was now forced to retire into Upper Egypt, where he
supported himself some years, during which Amasis made himself master of
the rest of his dominions.

The troubles which thus distracted Egypt, afforded Nabuchodonosor a
favourable opportunity to invade that kingdom; and it was God himself who
inspired him with the resolut