Egypt and Ethiopia (Chs. 18-20). 

        At this time Egypt was ruled by Ethiopian kings. Ch. 18 is addressed to the Ethiopian rulers; ch. 19 deals with the Egyptian people; ch. 20 includes both in one common doom.

        The interpretation of 19:18-22 is far from easy. “The language of Canaan” is Hebrew, and it probably refers to the Jewish communities that sprang up later in Egypt. There was a Jewish temple at Leontopolis from 160 B.C. to A.D. 72, and its builders looked on it as the fulfilment, but this is almost as doubtful as the identification of the great pyramid with the altar and pillar.

        In 19:24f we have one of the finest universalistic passages in the Old Testament. Though Israel still has the pre­eminence in the use of “inheritance,” the difference has be­come so small as to be virtually negligible; elsewhere “my people” and “the work of my hands” are confined to Israel.