Who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?

The Pharaoh of the oppression has been thought to be RAMESES II of the nineteenth dynasty, and the Pharaoh of the Exodus to be MENEPHTHAH his son. The latter had one son, SETI II, who must have been slain in the last plague on Egypt, if his father was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The monuments record the death of the son, and the mummy of the father has not been found, but he is spoken of as living and reigning after the death of his son. This would not agree with his perishing in the Red Sea. Scripture does not state positively that he fell under that judgement, but it does say that God "overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea." Ps. 136:15. God also instructed Moses to say to Pharaoh, "Thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power." Ex. 9:15. Menephthah has been described as "weak, irresolute, and wanting in physical courage," and it is thought he would never have ventured into the Red Sea. The monuments depict him as "one whose mind was turned almost exclusively towards sorcery and magic." It is no wonder therefore that he was so slow to learn the power of Jehovah. As scripture does not give the names of the Pharaohs in the Pentateuch, there is really no definite link between those mentioned therein and any particular kings as found on the monuments. Some Egyptologers consider other kings more probable than the above, placing the time of Joseph before the period of the Hyksos, while others place it after their exit.

After the Exodus scripture is silent as to Egypt for about 500 years, until the days of Solomon. The Tell Amarna Tablets (to be spoken of presently) reveal that Canaan was subject to Egypt before the Israelites entered the land. Pinetem 2, of the twenty-first dynasty, is supposed to be the Pharaoh who was allied to Solomon.

This time the word of the Lord through Moses contained not only a plain threat of what was impending but also a revelation of how the hand of the Lord had been upon him in the past, raising him up to sit upon the throne of Egypt. Verse 16 is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:17, as a striking example of the working of the sovereignty of God. Some of those who have studied the records of ancient Egypt have told us that in their opinion this Pharaoh of the exodus was not altogether of royal blood, but rather a son of the harem, who ascended the throne by being married to a princess fully of royal blood and in the line of succession. If this be so, it illuminates the position. He was "raised up" by God, not in the sense of being born into the world, but of being raised to the throne in an unusual way.

Most of today's scholars date the exodus of Israel in the 13th century BC, that is in the time of the 19th Dynasty (Ramses I. to Merenphthah, under whose reign the name of Israel is first mentioned in Egypt). This late date leaves much too little time for the period of conquest of the land and for the time of the judges. The different indications of time in the Bible also would be untrustworthy (see Jud. 11:26; 1 Kings 6:1; Acts 13:20). But if we take the Biblical indications the time of the exodus can be dated to the year 1446 BC approximately.

Rameses the Great is generally regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, the king who knew not Joseph. He reigned some seventy years. His sway extended over the whole of Egypt; his was the double crown — that which combined the upper and lower kingdoms. The Scriptures are not concerned with his greatness, save so far as it was used by him for the oppression of the Hebrew strangers, who had come down to Egypt and sojourned there for many generations.

The blow aimed at the god Ptah should be carefully noted. He was not only one of the highest of the deities, but the oppressor of Israel had expressly honoured him by branding the foreigners and prisoners in Egypt with his name." "I have marked with thy name all inhabitants and foreigners of the whole land; they are to thee forever"*; also, it may be worthy of notice, that the name of the supposed Pharaoh of the Exodus, the Pharaoh to whom Moses addressed himself; contained in it the name of Ptah-Men-ptah, or Mene-ptah — the beloved of Ptah.

At the beginning of this chapter reference was made to the resemblance existing between the gods and kings of Egypt. If we accept Meneptah, the son of Rameses the Great, as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, the man whose hand and will rose up to contend with the Almighty Jehovah, any information that may assist us better to comprehend his character will be interesting. The key to the pride possessing him was his belief that he was the incarnation of the deity. "The ruling Pharaoh of the day was the living image and the vice-regent of the sun." He was "the living representation of the deity," and was addressed in terms precisely similar to those wherewith they worshipped their god. An ode to him runs thus: —

The sun as the source of light was worshipped in Egypt . If Menephtah was the Pharaoh of the exodus, as some hold, this plague has a special significance. A sculptural image of this Pharaoh is preserved. His hand is out-stretched in worship, and underneath stand in hieroglyphics these words: "He adores the sun; he worships Hor of the solar horizons." Suddenly darkness, which could be felt, came upon Egypt . Pharaoh and all Egypt learned now that their idols were helpless. Darkness is the withdrawal of light. It stands for the solemn truth of the forsaking of God. (We may well think here of the darkness which enshrouded the cross and the unfathomable cry of our Lord, "my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?") God was about to abandon Egypt , the darkness was the herald of it. All Egypt was to be plunged into the severest of all judgments, the death of the firstborn. This darkness was God's final appeal to repentance. For three days they were shut in and all business was suspended. Rich and poor, king and beggar, the learned and the ignorant, all classes were shrouded in that awful darkness. The suspense must have been frightful. What was to come next? God waited, and in that silence and darkness appealed to their conscience. How slow God is to judge; it is His strange work. In infinite patience He waited before He dealt the final blow to Egypt . Thus He waits now and warns till at last His patience ends and His threatened judgments sweep the earth. The last objection and compromise by Pharaoh is found in verse 24, but Moses answered "not an hoof shall be left behind." Jehovah's demands and purposes concerning the completest separation from Egypt stand and must be literally executed.

There seems to be every probability that in the city of Rameses the chief wonders of Jehovah were wrought. We are now giving Brugsch as our authority. Meneptah "had his royal seat" there. On the eastern frontier of Egypt, in the low-lands of the Delta, in Zoan-Tanis, was the proper royal residence of the Pharaoh." This city, from a military point of view, formed the very "key of Egypt." It was most magnificent, as its ruins demonstrate. "A sandy plan, as vast as it is dreary, called at this day San, in remembrance of the ancient name Zoan, and covered with gigantic ruins of columns, pillars, sphinxes, stele, and stones of buildings… shows the position of that city of Tanis, to which the Egyptian texts and classic authors are agreed in giving the epithet of 'a great and splendid city of Egypt.' According to the geographical inscriptions, the Egyptians gave to this plain, of which Tanis was the centre, the name of Sokhot Zoan, 'the plain of Zoan '; the origin of which name is traced back as far as the age of Rameses II. The author of the seventy-eighth Psalm makes use of precisely the same phrase"*: "Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan" (ver. 12).

The Pharaoh who promoted Joseph (about B.C. 1715), and received into Egypt Jacob and his sons and their families. Gen. 40 — Gen. 50; Acts 7:10, 13.

The Pharaoh who knew not Joseph (about B.C. 1635), he oppressed the Israelites, and ordered the male children to be killed, under whom Moses was born; and whose daughter adopted him as her son. Ex. 1.

The Pharaoh from whom Moses fled when he was grown up (about B.C. 1531). Ex. 2.

The Pharaoh of the Exodus (about B.C. 1491). See EGYPT and PLAGUES.

Q. — Exodus 14:15. Is there substantial ground for doubting that the Pharaoh of Exodus, Menephthah, perished with his host in the Red Sea? I am aware that Sir G. Wilkinson (Ancient Egypt, 1:54) so thought, and that the Rev. Proffessor Rawlinson follows him (Hist. of Anc. Eg., 2:336) A DISCIPLE