ion. This prince, who was the instrument of
God's wrath (though he did not know himself to be so) against a people
whom he was resolved to chastise, had just before taken Tyre, where
himself and his army had laboured under incredible difficulties. To
recompense their toils, God abandoned Egypt to their arms. It is wonderful
to hear the Creator himself revealing his designs on this subject. There
are few passages in Scripture more remarkable than this, or which give a
clearer idea of the supreme authority which God exercises over all the
princes and kingdoms of the earth: "Son of man, (says the Almighty to his
prophet Ezekiel,) Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to
serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled:(485) yet had he no wages, nor his army,(486) for the
service he had served against it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God:
Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her
prey, and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of
Egypt for his labour, wherewith he served against it, because they wrought
for me, saith the Lord God."(487) Says another prophet: "He shall array
himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment, and
he shall go forth from thence in peace."(488) Thus shall he load himself
with booty, and thus cover his own shoulders, and those of his fold, with
all the spoils of Egypt. Noble expressions! which show the ease with which
all the power and riches of a kingdom are carried away, when God appoints
the revolution; and shift, like a garment, to a new owner, who has no more
to do but to take it, and clothe himself with it.

The king of Babylon, taking advantage, therefore, of the intestine
divisions which the rebellion of Amasis had occasioned in that kingdom,
marched thither at the head of his army. He subdued Egypt from Migdol or
Magdol, a town on the frontiers of the kingdom, as far as Syene, in the
opposite extremity where it borders on Ethiopia. He made a horrible
devastation wherever he came; killed a great number of the inhabitants,
and made such dreadful havoc in the country, that the damage could not be
repaired in forty years. Nabuchodonosor, having loaded his army with
spoils, and conquered the whole kingdom, came to an accommodation with
Amasis; and leaving him as his viceroy there, returned to Babyl