The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
Noph - called also Moph; Greek, Memphis (Jeremiah 2:16; Hosea 9:6); on the western bank of the Nile, capital of Lower Egypt, second only to Thebes in all Egypt: the residence of the kings, until the Ptolemies removed to Alexandria; the word means the port of the good (Plutarch). The Copts call it Menouf.
The princes of Noph are deceived. The military caste probably ruled in it: 'they also are deceived,' in fancying their country secure from Assyrian invasion.
The stay of the tribes thereof - rather, 'the corner-stone of her castes' (Maurer); i:e., the princes, the two ruling castes, the priests and the warriors: image from a building which rests mainly on its corner- stones (Isaiah 19:10, note; Isaiah 28:16; Psalms 118:22; Numbers 24:17, margin; Judges 20:2; 1 Samuel 14:38, margin; Zechariah 10:4).