Pharaoh living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness
Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler who oppressed the Israelites and decreed the killing of Hebrew male infants during the time of Moses' birth.
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This Pharaoh was the Egyptian ruler during the time of Moses' birth and early life (Exodus 1-2). Fearing the growing Hebrew population, Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and subjected them to hard labor. He ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill any male infants born to the Israelites, but they disobeyed, claiming that Hebrew women gave birth too quickly. Pharaoh then commanded that all Hebrew male infants be thrown into the Nile River.
During this time, Moses was born and hidden by his mother for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she placed him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter discovered the baby and decided to adopt him, unknowingly hiring Moses' mother as his nurse. Moses grew up in Pharaoh's court, but he later fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew (Exo.2.11-15; Act.7.21-29; Heb.11.24-27).
The Bible does not provide the specific name or historical identity of this Pharaoh, as the term "Pharaoh" was used as a title for Egyptian kings. Some scholars suggest that this Pharaoh may have been from the 18th or 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period, possibly Thutmose I, Thutmose II, or Amenhotep I, based on the historical and archaeological evidence of the Israelites' presence in Egypt.
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11 verses in 3 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H6547
So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.
Then his sister said to Pharaohʼs daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
“Go ahead,” Pharaohʼs daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boyʼs mother.
Pharaohʼs daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.
When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaohʼs daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”
When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
When he was set outside, Pharaohʼs daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaohʼs daughter.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.