Hashmannim

Hashmannim (Hebrew Chashmannim', חשׁמִנַּים; Sept. πρέσβεις, Vulg. legati), a plur. form occurring only in the Heb. of Ps 68:31: "Hashmannim [A. Vers. "princes"] shall come out of Egypt, Cush shall make her hands to hasten to God." The word has usually been derived from the Arabic Mashmin, rich, hence influential or noble; but a derivation from the civil name of Hermopolis Magna in the Heptanomis, preserved in the modern Arabic Ashmunyen, "the two Ashmins," seems more reasonable. The ancient Egyptian name is Hashmen or Hashmun, "the abode of eight;" the sound of the signs for eight, however, we take alone from the Coptic, and Brugsch reads them Sesennu (Geog. Inschr. 1, 219, 220), but hardly on conclusive grounds. If we suppose that Hashmannim is a proper name and signifies Hermopolites, the mention might be explained by the circumstance that Hermopolis Magna was the great city of the Egyptian Hermes, Thoth, the god of wisdom and the meaning might therefore be that even the wisest Egyptians should come to the Temple, as well as the distant Cushites. — Smith, s.v. We may add that the name Hasmonean, which was given to the Maccabees or Jewish princes in the interval between the O.T. and N.T.

was, it is supposed, derived from Hashmannim (Hengstenberg, Psalms, 2, 369).