Bible students will gladly read the account of a remarkable and interesting discovery sent to the Council of the Egypt Exploration Fund by their explorer, Mr. Flinders Petrie. He has apparently found the remains of a royal palace, mentioned in the Bible as "Tahpanhes," and referred to by the Father of History in his record of the adventures of the first Greek colonists who, six hundred years before the Christian era, settled in a corner of the northeastern Delta of Egypt.
These early Greeks conveyed to their countrymen the wisdom of the Egyptians; and the science, art, and literature of the older civilization was filtered through the artistic Greek intellect to the western world.
Students of Egyptian and Greek history will take deep interest in this discovery. But the finding of the remains of this royal palace appeals to a more numerous and humbler class of students.
In the book of Jeremiah the Prophet, from chapter thirty-seven to chapter forty-seven, the reader will find a graphic record of the events that preceded, accompanied, and followed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. A great portion of the action of this story took place in the country in which Mr. Petrie and his Arab labourers have been at work for some time past.
After the tumults that followed the departure from Jerusalem of Nebuchadnezzar with the captive Jews to Babylon, it was decided by Johanan, against the advice and the prophecy of Jeremiah, to fly into Egypt, the land of King Zedekiah's old ally. The princesses, and the captains, and Jeremiah, were taken across the frontier by Johanan, and hospitably received by Pharaoh Hophra, who installed his guests in the royal residence in Tahpanhes. Jeremiah could not rest even in the stronghold thus provided for himself and his countrymen by the kindness of Hophra, and in the court-yard or square of the royal palace of Tahpanhes he made a remarkable prophecy. Taking great stones in his hands, and burying them in the pavement, the Prophet declared that in that very spot King Nebuchadnezzar would spread his pavilion when he came, with his destroying army, to punish the Jews, and to execute vengeance on their Egyptian allies.
The prophecy, there is every reason to believe, was fulfilled. The Babylonish conqueror invaded Egypt, and burnt Pharaoh's house at Tahpanhes. Centuries have passed. The sand of the desert, and the mud of old Nile, have swept over the site of the remarkable prophecy, and about 2,500 years after the death of the Prophet, an Englishman rolls away the encrustations of time. He discovers the basement floor of the old citadel—half prison and half palace. From the ruins he extracts slabs of fine limestone covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, figures of captives delicately sculptured and painted, iron and bronze tools. In the kitchen he finds pokers, and spits, and broken bottles. The room of the little scullery maid is found almost intact. It contains a recess with a sink and a bench for the ancient pots and pans.
Mr. Petrie's communication, which can be had from the Secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund, throws a strong light on the wondrous story in the grand old Book which has been for centuries a household treasure in English homes, and will be read with delight by all lovers of the Bible.
Every season of life has its appropriate duties.
Through all our troubles, the tangled skein is in the hands of One who sees the end from the beginning. He shall yet unravel all.