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Bible Dictionaries
Pharaoh
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Pharaoh (fâ'ro, or fâ'ra-o). Genesis 12:15. The common title of the king of Egypt—also called Pharaoh-necho and Pharaoh-hophra. 2 Kings 23:29; Jeremiah 44:30; Jeremiah 46:2. Ten Pharaohs are mentioned in the Old Testament. 1. The Pharaoh of the time of Abraham. Genesis 12:15. The date of Abraham's visit to Egypt is most probably fixed at about b.c. 2080. 2. The Pharaoh of Joseph, Genesis 41:1-57, 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. S. The Pharaoh of the Oppression—" the new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph," Exodus 1:8, and under whose reign Moses was born—probably Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, the master-builder of Egypt, whose statues and temples in ruins are found all over the Nile valley from Zoan (Tanis) to Karnak. His mummied body was taken from the tomb in 1881 and unwrapped in the Bulak museum, 4. The Pharaoh of the Exodus, Exodus 5:1, before whom Moses wrought his miracles, was Menephtha, son of Rameses II. 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. 5. The Pharaoh whose daughter, Bithiah, was given in marriage to Mered, a descendant of Judah. 1 Chronicles 4:18. 6. 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 Kings 11:18 to 1 Kings 20:7. 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 Kings 3:1, consequently before the eleventh year of his reign, in which year the temple was finished. 1 Kings 6:37-38. This Pharaoh afterward made an expedition into Palestine, took Gezer, and gave it to his daughter, Solomon's wife. 1 Kings 9:16. 8. The Pharaoh to whom king Hezekiah was allied in his war with Sennacherib. 2 Kings 18:21. 9. Pharaoh-nechoh, also called amply Necho, reigned from b.c. 610 to 594. He made an expedition against Assyria, but was encountered by Josiah, king of Judah, at Megiddo. 2 Chronicles 35:20-24; 2 Kings 23:29-30. Necho's army was afterward defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, and he lost all his Asiatic possessions. 2 Kings 24:7. 10. Pharaoh-hophra, the Apries of secular history, was the second successor of Necho, and entered Palestine, probably in b.c. 590, in order to relieve Jerusalem, which was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah 37:5-8; Ezekiel 17:11-13; comp. 2 Kings 25:1-4. The campaign was of no avail. Jerusalem fell, and Nebuchadnezzar made a successful invasion into Egypt. Pharaoh-hophra was afterward deposed by his own subjects, and finally strangled. In their prophecies Jeremiah and Ezekiel (see above) give a very striking picture of this king, his arrogance and conceit, which corresponds closely with that given by Herodotus.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Pharaoh'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/p/pharaoh.html. 1893.
