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Returning to Solomon's wife, I also find it interesting that in the previous verses, the Shulamite compares her skin color to the tents of Kedar. Apparently, she must have been quite familiar with the tents of Kedar. But exactly who was Kedar? He was a son of Ishmael, who in turn was the son of Hagar the Egyptian, by the Patriarch Abraham. The Bible also tells us that Hagar obtained an Egyptian wife for her son, Ishmael, as we see here:

"And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt."


The word "kedar" happens to mean "dark", which may be another indication that the Egyptians, or Mizraim, were dark-skinned people. After all, if Kedar was dark, assuming that it means dark-skinned, then it only stands to reason that it may have been a result of the genes he had inherited from one of his parents. If his mother was from Egypt, and his grandmother, Hagar, was as Egyptian as well, it would seem to add a lot of weight to the possibility that they were in fact dark-skinned. Consider the following analysis:

Abraham (Semite) + Hagar (Hamite) = Ishmael (half and half)

Ishmael (half and half) + his wife (Hamite) = Kedar (3/4 Hamite)

If the above is accurate, then it is easy to see why Kedar would be considerably darker than his grandfather Abraham; because he would be three quarters Hamite, and only one quarter Shemite, whereas Abraham, we assume, was purely a Shemite.

There is a certain historical irony to all of this. You see, if the Egyptians were black as I have proposed, that means that the fair-skinned Israelites -- who were Semites -- were in fact enslaved by the black Hamites, millennia before the Semites would turn around and enslave the Hamites; which, as you know, is how black slaves would eventually arrive on the shores of Europe and North America. Could the fact that the Hamites enslaved the Shemite Israelites in Egypt, be one of the reasons why some Jews still have a deep hatred for the Blacks, as is taught in their own holy book, the Babylonian Talmud?

Returning to the Shulamite, a few verses later, she compares her husband, Solomon, to "a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots", as we see here:

"I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots."


Here again, the Shulamite woman reveals her familiarity with things Egyptian; which offers another tantalizing clue which may point to her place of origin and possible identity. Until now, I was under the impression that she was a descendant of someone by the name of Shula; however, additional research revealed something entirely different to me. According to my Hebrew lexicon, the word "Shulamite" means "the perfect" or "the peaceful". Other than this, there are no genealogical names associated with it. In other words, her ancestors are not listed. However, the lexicon also states that the word "Shulamite" is derived from the word "shalam", which just so happens to mean "to be in a covenant of peace, be at peace, to make peace with". With that definition, I have just told you exactly who I think she was.

So, exactly who was the mysterious Shulamite woman mentioned in the Songs of Solomon? Earlier, we read that Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter to be his wife. The word "affinity" is derived from the Hebrew "chathan", which means to become a son-in-law. In other words, it seems to me that what we are actually being told through these various verses, is that being a rather wise king, Solomon entered into an alliance with Pharaoh of Egypt; he made a peace agreement with him; and married into his family, by taking his daughter for a wife. By doing so, Solomon obviously hoped to extend the size of his kingdom, and secure the southern border of the same as well. So my guess is that the Shulamite woman, that is, the "peaceful one", from the Hebrew "shalam", may have been none other than the daughter of Pharaoh, who Solomon married. She may be the mystery woman of the Songs of Solomon. Pharaoh gave her to King Solomon as his "token of peace" between their two nations, and she was obviously black. It is just my personal theory, but it seems to make a lot of sense to me.

There is additional evidence which may support my conclusion. Consider also the following points, which I also discuss in the series "The Kings of the North and the South". Only seven chapters after this marriage arrangement is mentioned, we are told how the Queen of Sheba likewise visited Solomon, after she had heard of his wisdom, as we see here:

"And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions . . . And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built . . . And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon . . . And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants."


In discussing these famous encounters between King Solomon and this obviously very rich Queen of Sheba, Jesus had the following to say in the New Testament:

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here."


As you can see, Jesus equated the queen of the south with the Queen of Sheba, which obviously indicates that they are one and the same person. That phrase "uttermost parts of the earth" is also very interesting, because it offers us a hint regarding the place of origin of this Queen of Sheba, or Queen of the South. The word "uttermost" is translated from the Greek word "peras" which means extremity, end, boundary or frontier. The word translated here as "earth", that is, the Greek "ge", also means "a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries". So what we are being told here is that the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the South, originated in a country which was located at the southern border of Israel. This then leaves us with one question: where or what is Sheba? As I have pointed out before, the Bible is for the most part self-interpreting, and it provides us with an answer in the Book of Genesis, as we see here:

"And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan."


The above verse demonstrates that Sheba was the grandson of Cush, and the great grandson of Ham, who as we saw earlier, was one of the three sons of Noah. In essence then, Sheba belonged to the dark races which eventually settled in north Africa; he was a Hamite. In the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Genesis, we find the story of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael, which we discussed earlier. At Sarah's insistence, Abraham sent away Hagar and her son Ishmael, after Ishmael had mocked them, as we see here:

"And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac . . . And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba."


It is in this very same chapter that Abraham experiences some problems with Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, when Abimelech's servants steal a water well which had been dug by Abraham's servants. The two men come to an agreement concerning the issue, and Abraham calls the place Beersheba. The name Beersheba, pronounced be-ayr' sheh'-bah, actually means "well of the sevenfold oath". Abraham first named it this because of the precise agreement he had made with Abimelech, as we see in these verses:

"And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them."


Some of these wells were eventually filled in with dirt by the trouble-making Philistines, until the servants of Isaac re-discovered them, as we see here:

"For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth . . . And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day."


In the following verse found in the Book of Joshua, we make another important discovery concerning Sheba and Beersheba:

"And they had in their inheritance Beersheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,"


So what we see then, is that Beersheba and Sheba are one and the same place, and that it was re-named this by Isaac after his servants had re-discovered the well first dug there by his father Abraham. Looking at any ancient map of the area found in many Bibles, will quickly confirm that Beersheba is located in a region which was formerly the northern border of the Egyptian Empire, or the southern border of Israel if you prefer, at the time that King David was in power. About four hundred years prior to this, around 1450 BC, the entire land of Canaan was under the dominion of Thutmose III; but with the arrival of the Israelites, as well as due to the invading armies coming from the north and east, the northern border of the Egyptian Empire slowly receded southward over the years. However, the simple fact remains that being as this woman was called the Queen of Sheba, it does seem to indicate that at the time of Solomon's reign, Beersheba was still not under the full control of the Israelites. Perhaps it was Solomon's marriage to the Pharaoh's daughter which changed this. Today, Beersheba, or Be'er Sheva, as it is also spelled, is a city located on the northwestern edge of the Negev Desert, which runs into the Sinai Desert of Egypt. It seems very possible then, and even likely, that the Queen of Sheba who went to visit Solomon, was none other than the Queen of Egypt, also known as the Queen of the South.

As a final closing argument to prove what I have just stated, consider that in the prophecies of Daniel, we are informed of the various wars which occur between the "king of the north", and the "king of the south". While the Authorized King James Version of the Bible uses these two phrases, certain other translations of the Scriptures actually use the phrases "the king of Syria -- north -- and "the king of Egypt" -- south -- and after doing some Biblical research of my own, I came to the exact same conclusions, as I explain in my article "The Kings of the North and the South". Finally, as if it is icing on the cake, the word "south" is derived from the Hebrew word "negeb", which today is written as "negev"; the name of the very desert which borders with Egypt. So who knows; maybe the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the South, the Queen of the Negev, was even the mother of the Shulamite who Solomon married; but I cannot conclusively prove this point. It is merely a speculation on my part. I just don't see how the king of the south can be Pharaoh of Egypt, while the queen of the south cannot be the Queen of Egypt; do you?

Whatever the case may be, given how King Solomon eventually fell into deep apostasy in his old age, I wonder if his peace agreement with the Hamites of Egypt, and marrying Pharaoh's daughter -- the Shulamite? -- was a wise move after all. Let us not forget that the Lord specifically told the Israelites to not marry foreign women; and while Moses' commandment did not include the Egyptians by name, as we saw in part five by the verses found in the Book of Ezra, they were included in the ban. Furthermore, my research has shown that these ethnic groups were dependent upon Egypt, and in fact paid tribute to the Egyptians. Finally, it was their worship of Egyptian gods and goddesses which got the children of Israel in trouble in the first place; and it seems that King Solomon fell into the very same trap again. What was the Lord's reasoning behind this commandment? As we saw earlier, Moses said:

"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly."


In spite of this admonition from the Lord, in the first Book of the Kings, we read the following sad account concerning Solomon's many foreign wives, and his backslidden condition. Please notice that Pharaoh's daughter is mentioned first, as if to suggest that not only was she Solomon's main wife, but she may have also been the first one, as well as the most influential one, to lead him astray in his old age:

"But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded."


As we saw in part five, because of King Solomon's sins of idolatry and pagan devil worship, the Lord lifted up enemies all round him; however, as I have already explained, it was not until his son Rehoboam sat on the throne, that ten of the tribes of Israel were taken from him by the Lord, and given to his enemy, Jeroboam, who had fled years earlier to Egypt, in order to escape the wrath of Solomon. That must have been one time when the close relationship with Egypt was appreciated. As I noted before, the only tribes left to the house of David were Judah and Benjamin. This all came about as a result of Rehoboam's refusal to listen to the wise counsel of the old men, who had likewise served as advisers to his father, King Solomon. Please note that while these verses say one tribe, we are later told that the tribe of Benjamin clung to Judah, and remained faithful to the king:

"Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen."


Thus began the long history of the wars between the kingdoms of Judah, ruled from Jerusalem in the south, and Israel, or Ephraim, ruled from Samaria in the north. As a result of the foreign blood which was particularly prevalent in Samaria and northern Israel, even at the time of Christ, there were still hostile feelings between the Jews of Judah, and the Israelites of Samaria, known as the Samaritans. As should now be seen, all of these serious problems with idolatry and mixed marriages were a result of the children of Israel not obeying the commandments first given to Moses to destroy the devil-worshipping pagans which dwelt in the land of Canaan. Their compromises with the enemy, and sins against the Lord, had devastating effects on the land and people of ancient Israel.

Ethnically-speaking, due to the mixed marriages with those of Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Canaanite blood, the gene pool of the true Israelite became polluted with that of the darker-skinned Arabs and negroid races of Africa. In a religious sense, we have already seen the dire effects that pagan worship had on the ancient Israelite religious system. Thus, it appears that the people who claim to be the Jews of modern Israel may not really be true Jews at all; neither in the flesh, nor in the Spirit. Genetically-speaking, I wonder how many of them are really pure; and spiritually-speaking, because of their rejection of Jesus Christ, most of them are not true Jews either. For more details regarding this issue of the true spiritual Israel, please refer to my series "Is God a Racist?".

Moving on, if you compare the names in the following verses with the nations and peoples I listed previously, you will see the direct relationship between them and Canaan; the father of the enemies of ancient Israel:

"And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations."


Notice that these "countries" and "nations" were all located within the borders of Canaan; which again shows that our understanding of the word "nation" is not the same as it is used in the Bible. It simply meant a certain ethnic group. Following below is a list of some of the various gods and goddesses which were worshipped by these pagan nations and other foreign invaders; all of which were later idolized by the Israelites. All of these names can be found in the 1611 Authorized King James Bible. This list may not be complete:

1. Adrammelech - god of the Sepharvites of Sepharvaim, Syria
                 introduced to Israel by Shalmanesser the
                 fifth. Children were offered to this idol.
                 It means "honour the king".
                
2. Anammelech  - false god of the Assyrians introduced to
                 Israel during the monarchy. Worshipped with
                 rites resembling those of Molech. The
                 companion god of Adrammelech. It means
                 "image of the king".
                
3. Ashima      - god worshipped by the men of Hamath in
                 upper Syria. It means "guiltiness: I will
                 make desolate".
                
4. Ashtoreth   - supreme goddess (of war and fertility) of
                 the Canaanites and Phoenicians known as
                 Ishtar to the Assyrians, and as Astarte to
                 the Greeks and Romans. It's also written as
                 Ashtaroth or Astaroth. It may have also
                 been Isis of the Egyptians. It means "star".
                
5. Baal        - supreme god of the Canaanites and
                 Phoenicians. Also known as Baalim. It means
                 "lord".
                
6. Baal-peor   - god worshipped at Peor with probable
                 licentious rites. Means "lord of the gap".
                
7. Baal-zebub  - god of the Philistines worshipped at Ekron.
                 It means "lord of the flies".
                
9. Baalberith  - god of the Philistines which means "lord of
                 the covenant".
                
10. Bel        - a chief Babylonian god. Possibly the same
                 as Baal since it also means "lord".
                
11. Chemosh    - the national deity of the Moabites and a
                 god of the Ammonites, also identified with
                 Baal-peor, Baal-zebub, Mars and Saturn. It
                 means "subduer".
                
12. Chiun      - probably a statue of the Assyrian and
                 Babylonian god of the planet Saturn. It
                 means "an image" or "pillar".
                
13. Dagon      - god of fertility of the Philistines which
                 had the face and hands of a man, and the
                 tail of a fish. It means "a fish".
                
14. Merodach   - the chief deity of the Babylonians in the
                 time of Nebuchadnezzar. It means "thy
                 rebellion".
                
15. Milcom     - believed to be an alternate name for Molech.
                 Also Malcham. It means "great king".
                
16. Molech     - god of the Ammonites and Phoenicians. It
                 means "great king".
                
17. Nehushtan  - name given to the serpent of brass made by
                 Moses which the children of Israel idolized
                 until it was destroyed by King Hezekiah. It
                 means "a thing of brass".
                
18. Nergal     - A chief deity of Assyria and Babylon which
                 was worshipped by the men of Cuth northeast
                 of Babylon. It means "hero".
                
19. Nibhaz     - god of the Avites in the shape of a dog,
                 which they introduced into Samaria in the
                 time of Shalmanesser. Means "the barker".
                
20. Nisroch    - a god of Nineveh worshipped by Assyrian
                 king Sennacherib. It had a human body with
                 an eagle's head. It means "the great eagle".
                
21. Remphan    - name of an idol worshipped secretly by the
                 Israelites in the wilderness. It may be
                 associated with Chiun. It means "the
                 shrunken" as in lifeless.
                
22. Shach      - Babylonian goddess
                
23. Succoth    - Assyrian or Babylonian deity worshipped by
    -benoth      the Babylonians in Samaria. It means "the
                 daughter's booth".
                
24. Tartak     - god of the Avites of Samaria with the form
                 of an ass. It means "prince of darkness".
                

As can be easily seen, when the children of Israel decided to backslide into paganism, they did it with full abandon. Can there be any doubt then as to why the Lord decided to remove His blessings from them? In the second Book of the Kings, we read the following account of their backslidings, which leaves no doubt concerning why the Lord allowed them to be carried away captive by the king of Assyria:

"For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing."


"Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day."


Not only did the Lord allow the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel to be carried away captive into Assyria and lands beyond, but we are also told that Esar-haddon, the king of Assyria at the time, brought idol-worshipping people from Babylon, Assyria and Syria, to replace those whom he had carried away captive out of Samaria, the capital of Israel, as we see by these verses:

"And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof . . . Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;"


The Book of the Judges is also very revealing concerning the depth of the pagan worship into which the children of Israel had fallen; even before the appointment of their very first king, Saul. In the tenth chapter we read the following:

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him."


According to the young Prophet Jeremiah, just prior to the Babylonian invasions by King Nebuchadnezzar, there were so many false gods and goddesses in Judah, that they numbered as many as the cities therein; and the altars numbered as many as the streets of Jerusalem. Jeremiah wrote:

"For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal."


Jeremiah also spoke of how the people of Jerusalem offered their children upon the altars of Molech in the Valley of Hinnom; which was a steep gorge running east to west, just south of Jerusalem. It was later used to burn garbage and the dead bodies of criminals. Jesus used Hinnom, or Gehenna, as an example of hellfire, as I point out in the series entitled "Hell, the Lake of Fire and Universal Atonement". Jeremiah again wrote:

"And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."


After Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all of the captains of the forces had taken the remnant of Judah, including all of the men, women and children, plus Jeremiah the Prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah, down to Taphanhes in Egypt, where they hoped to escape further wrath from King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Lord rebuked Johanan via Jeremiah by saying:

"Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and 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. He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire."


In the previous verses, "Bethshemesh" means "the house of the sun", or "sun-temple". Tahpanhes is currently known as "Tel Defenneh", or "Tel Defneh", and is located about eighteen miles east southeast of Tanis, Egypt. In the Book of Psalms, King David also wrote very descriptively concerning the grave disobediences, the bloody sacrifice of children, and the spiritual whoredoms of Israel in the following verses:

"They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead . . . They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions."


As we conclude this series in part seven, we will look at such topics as the importance of tempering chastisement with hope and mercy, the promised return to Israel, God's desire for us to repent, our sins made as white as snow, the danger of becoming numb to the conviction of God's Spirit due to sin, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the danger of forsaking God's Mercy, the coming Arab invasion of Israel, the Battle of Armageddon, the definition of an antichrist, and God's Wrath. I trust that you will join me.

Please go to part seven for the conclusion of this series.

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Please avail yourself of other areas of the Bill's Bible Basics website. There are many treasures for you to discover.