Five Cities That Swear by the Lord

…we say that the first is what is now the city of the Rhinocorurans. They do indeed speak the Canaanite tongue (Isaiah 19:18), for the people in these cities have taken pains to adopt not so much the speech of the Egyptians as that of the Syrians.

Some say that Josephus clearly records in his own writings that a certain Ionias, who was of the blood of Levi and honoured with the priesthood under the law, left the land of the Jews, either after quarrelling with some of his own people or perhaps after suffering persecution, and occupied these five cities, since they bordered on the Canaanites. This man, he says, gathered a multitude of Jews past easy counting and settled in one of these five cities, which was also named the city of Asedek, that is, of righteousness (Isaiah 19:18). From that time, they say, those living at the borders of Egypt grew accustomed to speaking the language of the Canaanites and came to love it.

And they will learn, he says, to swear by the name of the Lord (Isaiah 19:18). This too is remarkable. For worshippers of vain things are accustomed to swear by whichever element of the world each of them fancies. Some name heaven, others the sun, others even the handmade things in their shrines; but they make no mention at all of the true God, for they have not known him. But to swear by his name belongs to those who have already come to know him and believe.

So too the all-wise Moses, when Israel had come away from the worship of Egypt, led them to the knowledge of the true God, saying: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”; and he added to this: “And by his name you shall swear” (Deuteronomy 6:13). That these five cities swear by no vain thing, but rather take up the name of the Lord for their oaths, is therefore clear proof that they received the faith.

“On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border; and it will be a sign to the Lord for ever in the land of Egypt” (Isaiah 19:19–20).

For the whole land of the Egyptians was crowded with temples and full of altars, and there were libations and sacrifices everywhere, offered by them partly to the elements of the world and partly, as I said, to the statues set up in shrines, and indeed to the pillars of demons. And why do I say this, when they even set up the shapes of irrational animals and bestowed on them the glory that befits God?

See, then, from what to what the state of the Egyptians has changed. For those who were once more superstitious than all others, and had plunged without bridle into lawless excess, will on that day, he says, that is, at that time when the saving preaching shines among them, accept the worship of him who by nature…