the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Pharaoh
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or (See EGYPT; EXODUS for the list of the Pharaohs.) The official title of the Egyptian kings. The vocalization and diacritic points show the Hebrew read "Par-aoh," not "Pa-raoh". It is not from Ra "the sun," for the king is called Si-ra , "son of Ra," therefore he would not also be called "The Ra," though as an honorary epithet Merneptah Hotephima is so-called, "the good sun of the land." But the regular title Ρharaoh means "the great house" or "the great double house," the title which to Egyptians and foreigners represented his person. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is strikingly confirmed by the Egyptian words, titles, and names occurring in the Hebrew transcription. No Palestinian Hebrew after the Exodus would have known Egyptian as the writer evidently did. His giving Egyptian words without a Hebrew explanation of the meaning can only be accounted for by his knowing that his readers were as familiar with Egyptian as he was himself; this could only apply to the Israelites of the Exodus. Abraham's Pharaoh was probably of the 12th dynasty, when foreigners from western Asia were received and promoted.
Joseph was under an early Pharaoh of the 13th dynasty, when as yet Pharaoh ruled over all Egypt, or probably under Amenemha III, sixth king of the 12th, who first regulated by dykes, locks, and reservoirs the Nile's inundation, and made the lake Moeris to receive the overflow. The 12th dynasty, moreover, was especially connected with On or Heliopolis. The Ηyksos or "shepherd kings", who ruled only Lower Egypt while native kings ruled Upper Egypt, began with the fourth of the 13th dynasty, and ended with Apophis or Apopi, the last of the 17th. Aahmes or Amosis, the first of the 18th, expelled them. He was the "new king who knew not Joseph." Finding Joseph's people Israel settled in fertile Goshen, commanding the entrance to Egypt from the N.E., and favored by the Hyksos, he adopted harsh repressive measures to prevent the possibility of their joining invaders like the Hyksos; he imposed bond service on Israel in building forts and stores. Moses as adopted son of the king's sister apparently accompanied Amenhotep I in his expedition against Ethiopia, and showed himself "mighty in words and deeds" (Acts 7).
Under Thothmes I, Moses was in Midian. Thothroes II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, drowned in the Red Sea. Thothmes III broke the confederacy of the allied kings of all the regions between Euphrates and the Mediterranean, just 17 years before Israel's invasion of Canaan, thus providentially preparing the way for an easy conquest of Canaan; this accounts for the terror of Midian and Moab at Israel's approach (Numbers 22:3-4), and the "sorrow and trembling which took hold on the inhabitants of Palestina and Canaan" (Exodus 15:14-16). (See BITHIAH and EGYPT on the influence which the Jewess wife (Tei) of Amenhotep III exercised in modifying Egyptian idolatry.) (See JOSIAH; NEBUCHADNEZZAR; JERUSALEM; EGYPT, on Pharaoh Necho II and Pharaoh Hophra.)
Herodotus (ii. 159) illustrates Necho's conquests in Syria and Palestine between 610 and 604 B.C.: "Necho made war by land upon the Syrians, and defeated them in a pitched battle at Magdolus" (Megiddo). Berosus (in Josephus, Apion 1:19) too says that toward the close of Nabopolassar's reign, i.e. before 605 B.C., Egypt, Syria, and Phoenicia revolted; so he sent his son Nebuchadnezzar to recover those countries. The sacred history harmonizes the two accounts. Necho designed to acquire all Syria as far as Carchemish on the Euphrates (2 Chronicles 35:20-24). Josiah opposed his design and fell at Megiddo. So Necho for a time ruled all Syria, "from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt," deposed Jehoahaz for Eliakim = Jehoiakim, and levied tribute (2 Kings 24:7; 2 Kings 23:31-35). Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish, 606 B.C. (Jeremiah 46:2), and recovered all that region, so that Necho "came not again any more out of his land."
Necho was sixth king of the 26th (Saitic) dynasty, son of Psammetichus I, and grandson of Necho I. Celebrated for a canal he proposed to cut connecting the Nile and Red Sea. Brugsch (Eg. 1:252) makes his reign from 611 to 595 B.C. PHARAOH HOPHRA succeeded Psamme tichus II, Necho's successor. Herodotus writes Apries. Began reigning 589 B.C., and reigned 19 years. Hai-fra-het (Rawlinson Herodot. 2:210, 823). He took Gaza of the Philistines (Jeremiah 47:1), and made himself master of Philistia and most of Phoenicia; attacked Sidon, and fought by sea with Tyre; and "so firmly did he think himself established in his kingdom that he believed not even a god could east hint down" (Herodotus ii. 161-169). So Ezekiel in harmony with the secular historian describes him as a great crocodile in his rivers, saying, "my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself" (Ezekiel 29:3).
But his troops sent against Cyrene having been routed, the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, revolted and set up Amasis as king; then strangled Hophra, and raised Amasis to the throne. Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29-32) foretold the conquest of Pharaoh and invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. Hophra in 590 or 589 B.C. bad caused the Chaldaeans to raise the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time (Jeremiah 37:5-7). Jerusalem, under Zedekiah, fell before Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B.C. Jeremiah in Egypt subsequently foretold "Jehovah's giving Hophra into the hand of them that sought his life" (Jeremiah 44:30; Jeremiah 46:25-26). The civil war between Amasis and Apries would give an opportunity for the invader Nebuchadnezzar (in the 23rd year of his reign: Josephus Ant. 10:11) to interfere and elevate Amasis on condition of his becoming tributary to Babylon. Or else the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar gave an opportunity for the revolt which ended in Hophra's death and Amasis' elevation.
Berosus alone records Nebuchadnezzar's invasion, but similarly we find Assyrian monuments recording conquests of Egypt either unnoticed by our historians extant or mentioned only by inferior authorities. National vanity would prevent the Egyptian priests from telling Herodotus of Egypt's loss of territory in Syria (which Josephus records) and of Nebuchadnezzar's share in raising Amasis to the throne instead of Hophra The language of Jeremiah 44:30 is exact to the truth: "I will give Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, and of them that seek his life," namely, Amasis and his party; Nebuchadnezzar is not mentioned until the end of the verse. In Ezekiel 30:21, "I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt ... it shall not be bound up"; Ezekiel's prophecy (Ezekiel 30:13), "there shall be no more a prince of ... Egypt," implies there should be no more a prince independent and ruling the whole land. Cambyses made Egypt a province of the Persian empire; since the second Persian conquest, 2,000 years ago, there has been no native prince.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Pharaoh'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/p/pharaoh.html. 1949.
