(13) Noph.--A contraction of Menoph, Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, situated in the region of the Pyramids, the seat of several dynasties, one of the chief centres of Egyptian idolatry, and celebrated for its Temple of Ptah.

There shall be no more a prince is to be understood, in accordance with the rest of the prophecy, not absolutely, but relatively: there shall be no more a native prince possessing the power of former kings.

Verse 13. - Noph, or, as in Hosea 9:6, Moph, is a form of the Egyptian M'noph, the reek Memphis (so in the LXX.), the capital of Lower Egypt, the chief center of the worship of Phthah, whom the Greeks identified with Hephaestos. Hence the special mention of the idols and images.

30:1-19 The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is very full. Those who take their lot with God's enemies, shall be with them in punishment. The king of Babylon and his army shall be instruments of this destruction. God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another. No place in the land of Egypt shall escape the fury of the Chaldeans. The Lord is known by the judgments he executes. Yet these are only present effects of the Divine displeasure, not worthy of our fear, compared with the wrath to come, from which Jesus delivers his people.Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols,.... With which Egypt abounded, making an idol of all sorts of creatures, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate, and in which they trusted; wherefore these being destroyed, they had nothing to put their confidence in:

I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; called Moph, Hosea 9:6 and which we there rightly render Memphis, as many versions do here, and was very famous for idolatry: here stood the temple of Serapis, and the temple of other idols; here Isis and Osiris were worshipped; and it was in Jerom's time, as he says, the metropolis of the Egyptian superstition. It was built by Menes (s), the Mizraim of the Scriptures, the first king of Egypt; though Diodorus Siculus (t) makes Uchoreus to be the founder of it. Some interpreters take this city to be the same with what is now called Alkair, or Grand Cairo; or, however, that this is built upon the same spot, or near the same place that was, in which I have followed them on Isaiah 19:13 whereas Cairo stands right over against old Memphis, the Nile being between them, on the east side of it, and Memphis on the west; as is clear from Herodotus (u), and from the charts of Dr. Shaw, and Mr. Norden; and who observe, that some take the place of it to have been where a village now stands, Dr. Shaw calls Geza, and Mr. Norden Gize:

and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt; that is, a native of that country; or that should rule over the whole of it, and in that grandeur the kings of Egypt had before; or, however, not dwell in Memphis, which was the seat of the kings of Egypt, but now should be so no more: when Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, it was under the Babylonians; and then under the Persians; and then under the Greeks; and afterwards under the Romans; since under the Saracens and Mamalucks; and now in the hands of the Turks; so that it never recovered its former glory; and indeed, after Nectanebus was driven out of it by Ochus, king of Persia, it never after had a king:

and I will put a fear in all the land of Egypt; a panic in all the inhabitants of it; as soon as they shall hear of the king of Babylon entering into it, their courage, bravery, and fortitude, shall at once leave them, and they shall be dispirited, and have no heart to defend themselves, and oppose the enemy.

(s) Herodot, Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99. (t) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46. (u) Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99.