TORRENT OF EGYPT (Hebr. náhal Miṣrājim). — Southern frontier of the land of Canaan (Num. 34:5), of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:4,7) and of Solomon’s kingdom (1 Kgs. 8:66; 2 Kgs. 24:7).
It most probably corresponds to the Wādi al-ʿArīš, a valley that flows into the Mediterranean about 80 km south of Gaza, after a course of about 250 km. St. Jerome, following the Septuagint, writes on Isa. 27:12: « pro torrente Aegypti LXX Rhinocoruarum transtulerunt; quod est oppidum in Aegypti Palestinaeque confinio » (PL 24, 33). The city ‘Pīvoxopōpā’ was the first east of Egypt; its torrent, today the Wādi el-ʿArīš, was therefore called the Torrent of Egypt, even by the Assyrians (nahal Muṣrī).
Bibl.: A. Mallon, Les Hébreux en Egypte, Rome 1921, p. 103. Donato Baldi