What is Egypt?

The message of the name

Egypt was called Musuru, Misir or Masri in several languages, so Mitzraim might just be a transliteration into Hebrew of any of these names. However, we can try to understand how a Hebrew audience might have interpreted the name Mitzraim. The word mitzraim מצרים looks similar to the Hebrew root metzar (מצר), so what does this root mean? 

The word metzar (מצר) means trouble, distress, pain. In a dual form, it would form the word מצרים, Mitzraim—and it would read Double Distress, or Double Trouble. For instance, in Lamentations 1:3, the very word metzarim (מצרים) has the meaning “distress[es],” with no connection to Egypt. Some scholars suggest that this is what Mitzraim would have meant to a Hebrew audience; for Israelites to go down to Egypt, would mean distress and trouble. This meaning can only be seen in the Hebrew text. To get a new perspective of the Bible and many other fascinating Hebrew insights, we invite you to enroll in our live online course, Discovering the Hebrew Bible.