The Brook of Egypt

נַחַל מִצְרַיִם

Where is the Brook of Egypt? Wadi el-Arish, northern Sinai, in Egypt. I mark it very likely.

The Torah runs the Land's southern border out to this wadi and the sea, and the rest of the Bible uses it as its southern bookend.

By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker

Site today
Wadi el-Arish, northern Sinai, in Egypt
How sure
Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
Other names
River of Egypt, Wadi of Egypt, Nahal Mitzrayim, Wadi el-Arish, Rhinocorura
Location
30.8348° N, 34.1185° E (Google Maps)
The Brook of Egypt on the hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel
Brook of Egypt on our hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel. Get the full map as a print →

How we know where it was

The clue is in the word. The Hebrew calls it a nahal, a stream valley. So we need a real wadi on the coast between Gaza and the Nile. Wadi el-Arish is by far the largest one in northern Sinai.

The old testimony agrees. When the Septuagint put Isaiah into Greek, it wrote Rhinocorura, the Greek town at the mouth of Wadi el-Arish. Saadia Gaon and Ishtori HaParchi said the same, and most authorities, traditional and modern, agree.

Rashi and Radak mention the Nile, but most authorities reject that reading. A nahal can be a winter wadi or a stream that flows all year, but it is never a great river like the Nile.

Solomon's feast drew Israel "from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt," the far north to the far south.

Visiting today

The wadi is in Egyptian Sinai. Its mouth at El-Arish is a military zone, closed to tourists.

Read it in the Bible

Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.

See Brook of Egypt on the interactive map →

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Nearby places

Sources and further reading