To come back to the miserable Hophra, his final end came when he was assassinated by his own general, whose name is given by the Greeks as Amasis and who appears on the monuments under the name of Iahmose. Amasis occupied the throne until the final conquest by Nebuchadnezzar.
We note again the coincidence of ancient records with the accounts that portray these events in the books of II Chronicles, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Voluminous sections of the Word of God are extended a strong and friendly hand of historical authentication by the secular records which have survived from that time.
In the British Museum will be found tablets, stelae, portraits, and sculptured remnants from Egypt which have been derived from those unsettled times. In the Egyptian collection of the British Museum, the exhibit numbered 1358 contains a portrait of Hophra. There are also a number of scarabs in Table Case “B” in the Fourth Egyptian Room, and a fragmentary sistrum in the Fifth Egyptian Room, all of which bear the name of Hophra and authenticate his record.
Thus we have seen in a brief but accurate recapitulation of generations and centuries of history that dead men do tell tales! We have Hophra’s record together with the annalistic tablet of Amasis to aid us in our understanding of these stirring days. Added to that, the record of Nebuchadnezzar brings additional confirmation of the thesis that is maintained in this brief work.
The evidence of archeology as it bears upon the text of God’s Word is final and complete wherever men have delved into the records of those days.
It may not be exactly what was in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ when He uttered the words, but we can certainly apply to the generation in which we live, His striking statement:
“If men should hold their tongues, the very stones would cry out!”
And if living men will not speak the truth concerning the finality of the Bible—dead men must!
CHAPTER XI
Vindication of Daniel
Nowhere in all this long and profitable study has archeology more perfectly and thoroughly vindicated the accuracy of the Scripture than in those portions of the disputed record that are found in the Book of Daniel.