Pharaoh

PHA'RAOH, an Egyptian word applied by the Egyptians themselves to their kings as a generic name or title, and adopted into Hebrew, where it was used either alone or with the addition "king of Egypt," or, as in two cases, followed by a proper name - Pharaoh-nechoh and Pharaoh-hophra. The word was formerly derived from the Egyptian article Pi or Ph and the word Ra, denoting "the sun," as the Egyptian king was considered the representative on earth of the sun-god, or from the Coptic ouro, "king." Modern Egyptologists (De Rouge, Brugsch, and Ebers) define its meaning as "the great house," and its application would thus be equivalent to our "the sublime porte." On account of the great uncertainty which still surrounds Egyptian chronology, it has proved very difficult to identify the different Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible, but, in many points, the investigations of Egyptologists and biblical scholars have reached pretty certain conclusions. Ten Pharaohs are mentioned in the O.T. The Pharaoh of the time of Abraham. Gen 12:15. He is probably identical with Salatis, the head of the fifteenth dynasty, one of the Shepherd-kings (Hyksos), foreigners of the Semitic race, who conquered Egypt and, having become Egyptianized, ruled it for several centuries. The date of Abraham's visit to Egypt is most probably fixed at about b.c. 2080. The Pharaoh of Joseph, Gen 41, was the last, or the last but one, of the fifteenth dynasty; probably identical with Apophis, who reigned at least 26 years, b.c. 1876-1850. The Pharaoh of the Oppression - "the new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph," Ex 1:8, and under whose reign Moses was born - is now by most Egyptologists identified with Rameses II., the third sovereign of the nineteenth dynasty (the Sesostris of the Greeks), the most prominent of the Pharaohs, a conqueror of many lands, the masterbuilder of Egypt, whose statues and temples in ruins are found all over the Nile valley from Zoan (Tanis) to Karnak and Aboo Simbel. The other theory, which seeks the Pharaoh of the Oppression in Aahmes I. (the Amosis of Josephus), who began to reign b.c. 1706 as the first sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty, is now pretty generally abandoned. See Egypt. The Pharaoh of the Exodus, Ex 5:1, before whom Moses wrought his miracles, and who perished with his army in the pursuit of the Israelites, was Menephtha, the thirteenth son of Rameses II., who began to rule b.c. 1325. His reign was inglorious and marked a period of decline. He did not even finish his father's tomb. On a monument of Tanis mention is made of the fact that he lost a son, and Dr. Brugsch connects this with the death of the first-born, the last of the plagues. The Pharaoh whose daughter, Bithiah, was given in marriage to Mered, a descendant of Judah. 1 Chr 4:18. The Pharaoh who gave the sister of his queen in marriage to Hadad, an Edomite of royal blood, who escaped the massacre of Joab and fled to Egypt. 1 Kgs 11:18-20. The Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married and brought "into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord," 1 Kgs 3:1, consequently before the eleventh year of his reign, in which year the temple was finished. 1 Kgs 6:37-38. This Pharaoh afterward made an expedition into Palestine, took Gerar, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and gave it to his daughter, Solomon's wife. 1 Kgs 9:16. The Pharaoh in whom King Hezekiah put his confidence in his war with Sennacherib, 2 Kgs 18:21, probably identical with Sethos or Zet. Pharaoh-nechoh, also called simply Necho, was the fifth or sixth ruler of the Saite dynasty, and reigned from b.c. 610 to 594. He made an expedition against Assyria, but was encountered by Josiah, king of Judah, who sided with Assyria, but was defeated and killed at Megiddo. 2 Chr 35:20-24; 2 Kgs 23:29-30. The Jews then raised Jehoahaz, the younger son of Josiah, to the throne, but he was deposed by Necho, who gave the sceptre to Jehoiakim, the elder son of Josiah. Necho's army was afterward defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, and he lost all his Asiatic possessions. 2 Kgs 24:7. See Necho.