Brook of Egypt

Biblical Text

The Brook of Egypt appears chiefly as a boundary marking the southwestern limit of the land Israel was to receive. English translations render the same Hebrew expression in different ways, such as "Brook of Egypt," "Wadi of Egypt," or "River of Egypt"; the King James Version generally reads "the river of Egypt."

• Boundary definitions: Numbers 34:5 states that the southern border of Canaan ran past Kadesh Barnea and Azmon, followed the Brook of Egypt, and ended at the sea (the Mediterranean). Joshua 15:4, 47 mentions the brook in describing the southern limit of the inheritance (allotted territory) of the tribe of Judah and the coastal region of Philistia. The southern boundary of the restored land in Ezekiel 47:19 and 48:28 is also understood to refer to the same brook.
• United Monarchy: 1 Kings 8:65 and 2 Chronicles 7:8 record that when Solomon dedicated the temple and kept the feast, all Israel assembled "from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt." This feast is commonly understood to be the Feast of Tabernacles.
• Final years of Judah: 2 Kings 24:7 records that the king of Babylon took all the territory that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
• Prophecy: Isaiah 27:12 declares that God will gather the children of Israel one by one from the river Euphrates to the stream of Egypt.

Background

The Hebrew word naḥal denotes a stream that flows only during the rainy season and remains a dry valley the rest of the year; in Arabic such a watercourse is called a wadi. It is distinct from nahar, which refers to a large, perennially flowing river. For this reason most scholars identify the Brook of Egypt not with the Nile of Egypt but with Wadi el-Arish, which crosses the northern Sinai Peninsula and empties into the Mediterranean. Other views identify it with a wadi south of Gaza (Nahal Besor) or with an eastern branch of the Nile Delta. Assyrian records are also known to mention a brook on the Egyptian frontier.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

Paired with "the entering in of Hamath" in the north or the river Euphrates in the northeast, the Brook of Egypt functions as an idiomatic expression for the full extent of the land God promised. It is read in connection with the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 15:18, in which God promised Abraham the land "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

The place name does not appear in the New Testament. However, Hebrews 11:13–16 describes what the patriarchs longed for as "a better country, that is, an heavenly." On the basis of this passage, many interpreters hold that the land promise carries forward in the New Testament as a broader hope.

Interpretation and Debate

• The "river of Egypt" in Genesis 15:18: This verse uses nahar rather than naḥal. Accordingly, some hold that it refers to the Nile, while others maintain that it designates the same place as the Brook of Egypt in other passages.
• Fulfillment of the land promise: Those holding a dispensationalist position often regard the promise of land up to this boundary as something to be literally fulfilled for ethnic Israel. Those holding to covenant theology regard the promise as fulfilled and expanded in spiritual and cosmic dimensions in Jesus Christ.