Set thy face against Pharaoh Pharaoh being a common name to all the kings of Egypt, this prince was called Pharaoh-hophra: by way of distinction, by Jeremiah 44:30, and Apries by Herodotus. The word תנים, tannim, signifies any great fish, but seems to be here used to signify the crocodile, a fish in a manner peculiar to the river Nile, to which the king of Egypt is compared, on account of his dominions lying upon that river, which he boasted himself of, on account of the prodigious fertility which the overflowing of the Nile caused. It is spoken of here as rivers, on account of its many mouths, or channels. The word Pharaoh signifies a crocodile in the Arabic tongue. Among the ancients, Michaelis tells us, the crocodile was a symbol of Egypt, and appears so on the Roman coins. Milton seems to have had this sublime passage in view, when he said, Par. Lost, 12: 190
Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon, tamed, at length submits.
My river is my own That is, the kingdom of Egypt, watered by the Nile, is mine. I have made it for myself It is my own indefeisible right and property, which I cannot be dispossessed of. This king was, indeed, exceeding prosperous, and reigned uninterrupted for twenty-five years; by which he was so elated, as we learn from Herodotus, that he was wont to boast, that not even any god could dispossess him of his kingdom.