He was known for his military excursions, including campaigns into Canaan, but after B. Also, his oldest son did not inherit the throne as would have been customary; he would have been a victim of the horrifying tenth plague.
He ruled Egypt from B. But he is particularly renowned for his great building projects, which could easily have included the work mentioned in Exodus While some argue that Pharaoh must have died in the Red Sea with his army, the Bible does not say this explicitly, so Raamses could have lived many more years, matching the dates attributed to his reign. Influence on the Biblical Story Though the Exodus account makes reference to two Egyptian cities, it does not go into much detail concerning this nation and its rulers.
Instead, the work of God and His servant Moses is central — and not the work of Pharaoh. The same was true in Genesis, where Joseph was named, but not his Egyptian ruler.
Not surprisingly, no clear Egyptian record of the enslavement and Exodus can be found, for it was a matter of great national humiliation. In a land where the ruler enjoyed divine status, a story showing that he had feet of clay was not likely to endure. BibleMesh As Creator and Lord of the universe, God could have made His holy book, the Bible, a million pages long, for He knew every detail about everything. But He was quite selective.
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And God needs to put on a show. After all this heart-hardening business, we can't help but ask: is Pharaoh stopping the Israelites from leaving Egypt, or is God?
Philosophically, this isn't a question that's answered by the text—the writers just didn't care. Instead, they work as hard as possible to make sure that we, the readers, know two things:. It's not Pharaoh's fault he keeps reneging on his promises. God is controlling him to demonstrate how awesome his power is compared to Pharaoh's. God: 1, Pharaoh: 0. He puts a moratorium on straw-providing, which makes it really hard for the Israelites to do their work.
All because they asked to worship their God for a few days. Point 1 makes us wonder if God is a little rash and competitive. But point 2 sweeps in and suddenly, God's actions seem a little less morally messy. Nothing like a nasty Pharaoh to make God look good. So Pharaoh's kind of a jerk. But if you look carefully, these jerky moments can give us some insight into his relationship with the Israelites.
In , the Israelite overseers come and talk to Pharaoh about the new bricks-without-straw rule. When it comes down to it, this is a negotiation scene about labor rights. And you know what? We're pretty sure slaves don't negotiate with their masters. Also, why doesn't Pharaoh just kill Moses? Why threaten him, just to keep meeting with him ? The whole scene looks a lot more like community leaders arguing with each other than a master-slave dynamic.
Back to the power struggle. Pharaoh is neither a victim of God, nor an evil oppressor. He's just a vessel and a plot device for God to use to display his power. Same goes for the slavery issue. Exodus is not a critical evaluation of the rights and wrongs associated with slavery. After all, the Israelites themselves kept slaves and had laws for dealing with them. Slavery was just a part of life in the ancient world. It all just comes back to a power struggle between the Egyptian god-king Pharaoh and God.
Pharaoh himself has an entourage who performs his magic, trying to prove his superiority over God. Pharaoh's priests work to replicate the miracles of Moses using "secret arts" The story wants us to think, "Hmmm, God has power, these dudes have arts. God wins. Pray to the Lord! Enough of God's thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer. Wait, what? What exactly has Pharaoh sinned against?
The Ten Commandments haven't even been written yet. The answer is that Pharaoh has transgressed nothing more than God's power. Pharaoh's not saying, "I've seen the error of my ways"—he's saying "Uncle.
Once the Israelites get through the Red Sea, Pharaoh pretty much drops out of the story. His army is destroyed, and we get little indication about what happened to him personally.
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