Pharaoh statue

Pharaohs of the Bible

This is the official title borne by the Egyptian kings down to the time when that country was conquered by the Greeks (See: EGYPT).

The name is a compound, as some think, of the words Ra, the “Sun” or “Sun-god,” and the article phe, “the,” prefixed; hence phera, “the Sun,” or “the Sun-god.” But others, perhaps more correctly, think the name derived from Perao, “the great house” = his majesty = in Turkish, “the Sublime Porte.”

Several different pharaohs are mentioned in the Bible.

  1. The Pharaoh who was on the throne when Abram went down into Egypt

    Genesis 12:10-20

    This was probably one of the Hyksos, or “shepherd kings.” The Egyptians called the nomad tribes of Syria Shasu, “plunderers,” their king or chief Hyk, and hence the name of those invaders who conquered the native kings and established a strong government, with Zoan or Tanis as their capital.

    They were of Semitic origin, and of kindred blood accordingly with Abram. They were probably driven forward by the pressure of the Hittites.

    The name they bear on the monuments is “Mentiu.”

  2. The Pharaoh of Joseph’s days

    Genesis 41

    This was probably Apopi (Apopis), the last of the Hyksos kings.

    To the old native Egyptians, who were an African race, shepherds were “an abomination;” but to the Hyksos kings these Asiatic shepherds who now appeared with Jacob at their head were congenial, and being akin to their own race, had a warm welcome (Genesis 47:5,6).

    Some argue that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of Thothmes III, long after the expulsion of the Hyksos, and that his influence is to be seen in the rise and progress of the religious revolution in the direction of monotheism which characterized the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

    The wife of Amenophis III, of that dynasty, was a Semite. Is this singular fact to be explained from the presence of some of Joseph’s kindred at the Egyptian court?

    Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell” (Genesis 47:5-6).

  3. The “new king who knew not Joseph”

    Exodus 1:8-22

    For about 70 years the Hebrews in Egypt were under the powerful protection of Joseph. After his death their condition was probably very slowly and gradually changed. The invaders, the Hyksos, who for some five centuries had been masters of Egypt, were driven out, and the old dynasty restored. The Israelites now began to be looked down upon. They began to be afflicted and tyrannized over.

    In process of time a change appears to have taken place in the government of Egypt.

  4. Rameses II

    He is the son of Seti I and is probably the Pharaoh of the Oppression of the Hebrews. During his 40 years’ residence at the court of Egypt, Moses must have known this ruler well. During his sojourn in Midian, however, Rameses died, after a reign of sixty-seven years, and his body embalmed and laid in the royal sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings beside that of his father. Like the other mummies found hidden in the cave of Deir el-Bahari, it had been for some reason removed from its original tomb, and probably carried from place to place till finally deposited in the cave where it was so recently discovered.

    In 1886, the mummy of this king, the “great Rameses,” the “Sesostris” of the Greeks, was unwound, and showed the body of what must have been a robust old man. The features revealed to view are thus described by Maspero:

    “The head is long and small in proportion to the body. The top of the skull is quite bare. On the temple there are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the hair is quite thick, forming smooth, straight locks about two inches [5.08 centimeters] in length. White at the time of death, they have been dyed a light yellow by the spices used in embalmment. The forehead is low and narrow; the brow-ridge prominent; the eye-brows are thick and white; the eyes are small and close together; the nose is long, thin, arched like the noses of the Bourbons; the temples are sunk; the cheek-bones very prominent; the ears round, standing far out from the head, and pierced, like those of a woman, for the wearing of earrings; the jaw-bone is massive and strong; the chin very prominent; the mouth small, but thick-lipped; the teeth worn and very brittle, but white and well preserved.

    The moustache and beard are thin. They seem to have been kept shaven during life, but were probably allowed to grow during the king’s last illness, or they may have grown after death. The hairs are white, like those of the head and eyebrows, but are harsh and bristly, and a tenth of an inch [2.54 milimeters] in length. The skin is of an earthy-brown, streaked with black.

    Finally, it may be said, the face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal; but even under the somewhat grotesque disguise of mummification there is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride.”

    Both on his father’s and his mother’s side it has been pretty clearly shown that Rameses had Chaldean or Mesopotamian blood in his veins to such a degree that he might be called an Assyrian. This fact is thought to throw light on Isaiah 52:4.

  5. The Pharaoh of the Exodus

    This was probably Menephtah I, the 14th and eldest surviving son of Rameses II. He resided at Zoan, where he had the various interviews with Moses and Aaron recorded in the book of Exodus. His mummy was not among those found at Deir el-Bahari.

    It is still a question, however, whether Seti II or his father Menephtah was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Some think the balance of evidence to be in favor of the former, whose reign it is known began peacefully, but came to a sudden and disastrous end. The “Harris papyrus,” found at Medinet-Abou in Upper Egypt in 1856, a state document written by Rameses III, the second king of the Twentieth Dynasty, gives at length an account of a great exodus from Egypt, followed by wide-spread confusion and anarchy. This, there is great reason to believe, was the Hebrew exodus, with which the Nineteenth Dynasty of the Pharaohs came to an end. This period of anarchy was brought to a close by Setnekht, the founder of the Twentieth Dynasty.

    “In the spring of 1896, Professor Flinders Petrie discovered, among the ruins of the temple of Menephtah at Thebes, a large granite stela, on which is engraved a hymn of victory commemorating the defeat of Libyan invaders who had overrun the Delta. At the end other victories of Menephtah are glanced at, and it is said that ‘the Israelites (I-s-y-r-a-e-l-u) are minished (?) so that they have no seed.’ Menephtah was son and successor of Rameses II, the builder of Pithom, and Egyptian scholars have long seen in him the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

    The Exodus is also placed in his reign by the Egyptian legend of the event preserved by the historian Manetho. In the inscription the name of the Israelites has no determinative of ‘country’ or ‘district’ attached to it, as is the case with all the other names (Canaan, Ashkelon, Gezer, Khar or Southern Israel, etc.) mentioned along with it, and it would therefore appear that at the time the hymn was composed, the Israelites had already been lost to the sight of the Egyptians in the desert. At all events they must have had as yet no fixed home or district of their own. We may therefore see in the reference to them the Pharaoh’s version of the Exodus, the disasters which befell the Egyptians being naturally passed over in silence, and only the destruction of the ‘men children’ of the Israelites being recorded. The statement of the Egyptian poet is a remarkable parallel to Exodus 1:10-22.”

  6. The Pharaoh of 1 Kings 11 who generously hosted Hadad

    Then they arose from Midian and came to Paran; and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he gave him a house and assigned him food and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh. So he gave him as a wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.

    And the sister of Tahpenes bore his son Genubath. And Tahpenes weaned him in Pharaoh’s house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among the sons of Pharaoh.

    But Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army had died. So Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Send me away, that I may go to my own country.”

    Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that behold, you are seeking to go to your own country?” And he answered, “Nothing; nevertheless you must surely let me go.” —1 Kings 11:18-22

    Q & A

  7. King So

    Hebrew: סוֹא —transliteration: Sô or So

    Note that the Bible calls him “king of Egypt” rather than “Pharaoh”. This may reflect the fragmented political reality of Egypt at the time or evolving Hebrew usage of titles.

    Egypt during this period (3rd Intermediate Period, roughly 1069–664 BC) was politically fragmented, especially in the Delta region. Multiple local dynasties and rulers coexisted or competed, rather than a single unified “Pharaoh” controlling the entire Nile Valley as in earlier eras like the New Kingdom. The 22nd Dynasty (Libyan/Bubastite) was waning, with rival claimants in the eastern and western Delta, while the 23rd/24th Dynasties held smaller territories, and the rising 25th (Kushite/Nubian) Dynasty was beginning to expand northward from the south.

    This king of Egypt is very briefly mentioned in the books of Kings during the final years of the northern Kingdom of Israel.

    But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. —2 Kings 17:4

    King Hoshea’s act of rebellion contributed directly to the Assyrian conquest of Samaria and the fall of Israel around 722 BC, with Hoshea imprisoned and the population deported.

    This event fits into the broader pattern of the kings of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah seeking Egyptian alliances as a counterweight to Assyrian (and later Babylonian) dominance—a policy often condemned by prophets like Hosea and Isaiah as unreliable and faithless (e.g., Hosea 7:11; Isaiah 30–31). Egypt appeared as a tempting but ultimately ineffective “broken reed” (Isaiah 36:6). The alliance failed; no significant Egyptian aid materialized, and the Kingdom of Israel fell.

    Who was this king?

    Probably Osorkon IV (most widely accepted in recent scholarship, circa 730–715 BC)

    Why it fits: Osorkon IV was a ruler of the 22nd Dynasty based in the eastern Nile Delta (associated with Tanis/Zoan and Bubastis). His territory was geographically closest to the Israel, making him a logical contact for an Israelite king seeking quick aid. “So” (or “Sô”/“Seveh”) is seen as a reasonable Hebrew abbreviation or vocalization of “Osorkon” (common in Egyptian naming practices, e.g., Shoshenq often shortened). He is also linked to the Assyrian “Shilkanni” (or similar), a “king of Musri” (Egypt) mentioned in Sargon II’s records around this era, who interacted with Levantine affairs.

    Supporting evidence: Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen (in The 3rd Intermediate Period in Egypt) strongly argued for this, noting Osorkon IV’s proximity, the abbreviation pattern, and consistency with what little is known of his brief reign (including submission to the Kushite/Cushite king Piye/Piankhy around 728 BC). Lawrence Mykytiuk includes him in lists of biblically confirmed figures via archaeology. An aegis (protective amulet) from Bubastis and other minor artifacts support his existence as a Delta potentate capable of receiving envoys. Assyrian records of a “Pir'u of Musri” aiding Levantine figures around 720 BC may also align.

    Q & A

  8. The Pharaoh of 1 Chronicles 4:18

  9. Pharaoh, whose daughter Solomon married

    1 Kings 3:1; 7:8

  10. Pharaoh, in whom Hezekiah put his trust

    This was during Hezekiah’s war against Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:21).

  11. The Pharoah who defeated and killed Josiah

    Josiah was slain at Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:20-24; 2 Kings 23:29-30). (See NECHO.)

  12. Pharaoh Hophra

    also known as: Ḥofraʿ, Apries (Greek), Wahibre Haaibre, and Uahab-ra

    Hebrew: חָפְרַע

    He was a ruler of Egypt’s 26th Dynasty (the Saite Period), reigning for about 19 years approximately from 589 BC to 570 BC. His birth name is Wahibre meaning “constant/strong is the heart of Ra”). His throne name is Haaibre (“jubilant is the heart of Ra forever”). The Hebrew “Hophra” and Greek “Apries” (or Ouaphris in Manetho) are abbreviated forms that omit the initial “Wa-” syllable, a common pattern in foreign transcriptions of Egyptian names.

    He sought in vain to relieve Jerusalem when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings 25:1-4; compare Jeremiah 37:5-8; Ezek. 17:11-13.

    His attempted intervention ultimately failed to prevent the city’s fall in 586 BC when King Zedekiah ruled the Kingdom of Judah. Hophra’s reign exemplifies the ambitions, military engagements, and internal instabilities of late Saite Egypt, a time when native Egyptian rulers sought to revive the kingdom’s power through alliances, mercenaries, and campaigns while facing rising threats from Babylon and internal divisions.

    Q & A

    (See Hophra and Zedekiah.)

Q & A
Article Version: April 13, 2026