Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
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. " 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. 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. c. 2080. c. 1876-1850. , 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. c. 1706 as the first sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty, is now pretty generally abandoned. See Egypt. 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. 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. c. 590, in order to relieve Jerusalem, which was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. Jer 37:5-8; Eze 17:11-13; comp. 2 Kgs 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, though he was at first treated kindly by his successor, Amosis, he was finally strangled.
In their prophecies Jeremiah and Ezekiel give a very striking picture of this king, his arrogance and conceit, which corresponds closely with that given by Herodotus.