NOPH:
City of ancient Egypt, mentioned in Isa. xix. 13, Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1, xlvi. 14, and Ezek. xxx. 13, 16. All the ancient versions render it "Memphis," so that, evidently, the name has been disfigured from the more correct form "Mof," found in Hos. ix. 6 (see Memphis). Some scholars (De Rougé, Lenormant, E. Meyer) have endeavored to maintain the consonants of "Nof" and to explain it as "Napata" in Ethiopia, but Ezek. xxx. 13 shows it to have been an Egyptian city, and the formation of Jewish colonies in so remote a place as Napata (comp. Jer. xliv. 1, xlvi. 14) is not probable.
