PHARAOH, a generic name of the kings of Egypt, belonging to the ancient native dynastics. Josephus says, that all the kings of Egypt, from Menes the founder of Memphis, who lived several ages before Abraham, always bore the name of Pharaoh, down to the time of Solomon, that is, for more than three thousand years. He adds, that in the Egyptian language the word Pharaoh signifies king ; and that those princes only assumed this name when they ascended the throne, at which time they also relinquished their former names. Hence it comes to pass, says Josephus, that Herodotus names none of the kings of Egypt after Menes the builder of Memphis, although he had three hundred and thirty successors, because they had all the name of Pharaoh; but because it did not pass to women, he namesan Egyptian queen, Nicaule, who succeeded them. Lastly, Josephus concludes, from the ancient records of his nation, that after the age of Solomon no king of Egypt bore any longer the name of Pharaoh.

But Josephus is not accurate in this passage. It is true, Herodotus says that Menes was the first king of Egypt, and the founder of Memphis; that there were three hundred and thirty kings after him in that country; and that after them there was a queen called Nicoris, and not Nicaule, as Josephus writes it. But it is not true that these kings had no other name but that of Pharaoh. Herodotus says expressly, that in the books of the Egyptian priests were inserted the names and the catalogue of three hundred and thirty kings; that in this number of three hundred and thirty there were eighteen Ethiopians, and a woman, who was a foreigner, called Nicoris; and that all the others were Egyptians. These princes therefore had every one his proper name mentioned in the catalogue of the Egyptian kings. Thus, in the fragments of Manetho, we find that every king of Egypt had a name peculiar to himself; whilst the name of Pharaoh occurs only în Scripture. What Josephus adds concerning Queen Nicaule, or Nicoris, whom he pretends to be the same as the queen of Sheba, of whom mention is made in Scripture, is entirely fabulous; and as to his statement, that since the time of Solomon the kings of Egypt have no longer borne the name of Pharaoh, it is manifestly false, since we still find his name in the second book of Kings, under Hezekiah;^[1. Kings, xviii. 21. ] under Josiah,^[2. Ibid, xxiii. 29, 33. ] where this name is joined to that of Nechoh, which was the proper name of the prince; under Jehoiakim;^[3. Ibid, xxiii. 34, 35. ] and likewise in the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who were much later than Solomon. It is probable, indeed, that the Egyptians gave the name of Pharaoh to their kings as long as the Egyptian language was in common use, and as long as their kings were of their own nation; but after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, when the Greeks introduced their language and their government, the name of Pharaoh was no longer known amongst them. Indeed it had ceased to be so from the date of the Persian invasion under Cambyses. The first prince known to us by the name of Pharaoh was he in whose time Abraham went down to Egypt, when Sarah, who passed only for Abraham’s sister, was by the command of Pharaoh brought to his palace in order to become his wife. But the Lord smote Pharaoh and his family with great infirmities, and gave him to know that she was Abraham’s wife; upon which Pharaoh sent for Abraham, restored him his wife, and at the same time gave orders that he should be conducted out of Egypt, with every thing that belonged to him.

The second Pharaoh spoken of in the Scripture is he who reigned when Joseph arrived there. This prince or his successor had the mysterious dream of the fat and the lean kine, and the seven full and barren ears of corn, which Joseph explained so much to his satisfaction that he made him governor of his house and of all Egypt, reserving only to himself the name of king. This is the same Pharaoh who sent for and entertained the patriarch Jacob and his family in Egypt, and gave them the land of Goshen for their habitation.

The third Pharaoh mentioned in Holy Writ is he who persecuted the Israelites. Moses tells us that he was a new king, and had no knowledge of Joseph. This prince, observing that the Israelites had become numerous and powerful, resolved to depress them by hardship and labour, and set cruel and pitiless taskmasters over them. But the more he oppressed them the faster they multiplied; insomuch that he gave orders to the Egyptian midwives, who assisted the Hebrew women in their labour, to put all the male children to death, and to save alive the females only. But this command was not strictly executed. The midwives feared the Lord, and preserved alive not only the female children, but also the males. Pharaoh, finding this project did not succeed to his wishes, published a decree that all the male children born of Hebrew women should be thrown into the Nile, and that only the females should be spared. This order was rigorously executed; yet, by the providence of God, Moses was preserved, and even brought up in Pharaoh’s court, by his own daughter, who by chance had found the child, as he was exposed amongst the rushes of the Nile.

Moses being grown up, and having killed an Egyptian who had abused an Hebrew, was obliged to fly from Egypt in order to avoid that death which Pharaoh had threatened him withal. But several years afterwards, being about eighty years old, he returned by order from God, and performed mighty miracles before Pharaoh. There is a good deal of probability that this Pharaoh before whom Moses appeared, and in whose sight he smote Egypt with so many plagues, was a different person from him who would have laid hands on the Jewish chief after he had slain the Egyptian. This Pharaoh having been at last compelled to send away the Hebrews, and to suffer them to quit Egypt, soon repented of the leave he had given, and pursued them at the head of his army with his chariots. But he was drovyn-ed in the Red Sea, in which he had rashly entered in the eagerness of pursuit. Several historians pretend to give the name of this Pharaoh; some, as Apion, calling him Amosis or Amasis; Eusebius, Chenchris; and Usher, Amenophis; but we may be assured that there is nothing certain in all this.

The fifth Pharaoh known to us is he who afforded protection to Hadad, son of the king of Edom, and who gave him to wife the sister of his own queen, enriched him with lands, and brought up his son Genubah in his own court. Hadad returned to Idumaea after the death of David.

The sixth Pharaoh is he who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, king of the Hebrews (1 Kings, iii. 1), and who, having taken Gezer, set it on fire, drove out the Canaanites, and gave it as a present to Solomon, in lieu of [7:17:340] a dowry to his daughter, whom he had married to this prince (1 Kings, ix. 16).

The seventh is Shishak, who entertained Jeroboam in his dominions, a rebellious subject of Solomon, and offered him a refuge in opposition to the king his master. The same Shishak declared war against Rehoboam the son and successor of Solomon, besieged and took Jerusalem, and carried away all the king’s treasures, and those of the house of God, particularly the golden bucklers which Solomon had made.

The eighth is that Pharaoh with whom Hezekiah formed a league against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, in the year of the world 3290. This Pharaoh is probably the same whom Herodotus names Sethon, priest of Phtha, who came to meet Sennacherib before Pelusium, and to whose assistance Phtha sent an army of rats, which gnawed the bowstrings and the thongs of the bucklers of Sennacherib’s soldiers.

The ninth is Pharaoh Nechoh, or Nechos, the son of Psammeticus, who made war on Josiah, and conquered him. Herodotus also mentions this prince.

The tenth of this name is Pharaoh Hophrah, who entered into an alliance with Zedekiah, king of Judah, and attempted to march to his assistance against Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldaea. It was against this Pharaoh that Ezekiel pronounced several of his prophecies.^[4. Ezekiel, xxix. xxx. xxxi. xxxii. ] He is called Apries in Herodotus,^[5. Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 161. ] and is also mentioned in Habakkuk.^[6. Habakkuk, ii. 15, 16. ]