Bible Locations

Libya in the Bible refers to the lands west of Egypt along the North African coast. In Ezekiel 30:5, in a prophecy against Egypt, "Cush and Libya, Lydia and all Arabia" are among Egypt's allies who will fall with it. Other Old Testament passages mention Put and the Lubim, Libyan peoples who served in Egypt's armies. Libyan soldiers marched with Pharaoh Shishak when he invaded Judah (2 Chronicles 12:3), and Shishak himself belonged to a dynasty of Libyan origin that ruled Egypt from about 945 BC. In Acts 2:10, at Pentecost, the crowd included people from "the parts of Libya near Cyrene," the region called Cyrenaica, in what is now eastern Libya, where many Jews lived. Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus' cross, came from there. The coastal strip was fertile, while the interior was desert.