says that he afterwards took the
city Cadytis, which he represents as situated in the mountains of
Palestine, and equal in extent to Sardis, the capital at that time not
only of Lydia, but of all Asia Minor. This description can suit only
Jerusalem, which was situated in the manner above described, and was
then the only city in those parts that could be compared to Sardis. It
appears besides, from Scripture, that Nechao, after his victory, made
himself master of this capital of Judea; for he was there in person,
when he gave the crown to Jehoiakim. The very name Cadytis, which in
Hebrew, signifies the holy, points clearly to the city of Jerusalem,
as is proved by the learned dean Prideaux.

10. _Psammis_.--His reign was but of six years' duration, and history
has left us nothing memorable concerning him, except that he made an
expedition into Ethiopia.

11. _Apries_.--In Scripture he is called Pharaoh-Hophra; and,
succeeding his father Psammis, reigned twenty-five years.

During the first year of his reign, he was as happy as any of his
predecessors. He carried his arms into Cyprus; besieged the city of
Sidon by sea and land; took it, and made himself master of all
Phoenicia and Palestine.

So rapid a success elated his heart to a prodigious degree, and, as
Herodotus informs us, swelled him with so much pride and infatuation,
that he boasted it was not in the power of the gods themselves to
dethrone him; so great was the idea he had formed to himself of the
firm establishment of his own power. It was with a view to these
arrogant conceits, that Ezekiel put the vain and impious words
following into his mouth: _My river is mine own, and I have made it
for myself_. But the true God proved to him afterwards that he had a
master, and that he was a mere man; and he had threatened him long
before, by his prophets, with all the calamities he was resolved to
bring upon him, in order to punish him for his pride.

12. _Amasis_.--After the death of Apries, Amasis became peaceable
possessor of Egypt, and reigned over it forty years. He was, according
to Plato, a native of the city of Sais.

As he was but of mean extraction, he met with no respect, and was
contemned by his subjects in the beginning of his reign. He was not
insensible of this; but nevertheless thought it his interest to subdue
their tempers by an artful carriage, and to win their affection by
gentleness and reason. He had a golden cistern, in which himself, an