Exodus 1:8-14

The new king (Exodus 1:8) may have been Ahmose (Greek Amosis) who founded the eighteenth dynasty and the New Kingdom and ruled from 1570 to 1546 B.C. However, he was probably one of Ahmose’s immediate successors, Amenhotep I or, most likely, Thutmose I. The Egyptian capital at this time was Zoan (Gr. Tanis). Ahmose was the first native Egyptian Pharaoh for many years. Preceding him was a series of Hyksos rulers. [Note: See Aharon Kempinski, "Jacob in History," Biblical Archaeology Review 14:1 (January-February 1988):42-47.] The name Hyksos probably means "rulers of foreign lands." [Note: John Van Seters, The Hyksos, p. 187.] They were a Semitic people from the northern part of the Fertile Crescent who had invaded Egypt about 1670 B.C. and ruled until Ahmose expelled them. The New Kingdom (ca. 1570-1085 B.C.) that Ahmose inaugurated was the period of greatest imperial might in Egypt’s long history.

"In the Late Bronze Age [ca. 1500-1200 B.C.], Egypt entered her period of Empire, during which she was unquestionably the dominant nation of the world. Architects of the Empire were the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, a house that was founded as the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt and that retained power for some two hundred and fifty years (ca. 1570-1310), bringing to Egypt a strength and a prestige unequaled in all her long history." [Note: John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 98.]

The title "Pharaoh" means "great house." It originally designated the Egyptian king’s residence and household. It became a title for the king himself for the first time in the eighteenth dynasty. [Note: Walter C. Kaiser Jr., "Exodus," in Genesis-Numbers, vol. 2 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 288.]

The implication of the statement that Pharaoh "did not know Joseph" in the Hebrew text is that he did not know him because he did not want to know about him. It seems that the early kings of the eighteenth dynasty wanted to solidify control of Egypt in the hands of native Egyptians. After a long period of control by foreigners, they did not want to acknowledge the greatness of Joseph who was, of course, also a foreigner and a Semite.

"Forgetfulness of Joseph brought the favour shown to the Israelites by the kings of Egypt to a close." [Note: C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch, 1:421.]

Pharaoh launched three successive plans to reduce the threat of the sizable Hebrew population that then was larger and stronger than the Egyptian ruling class (Exodus 1:9).

The first plan (plan A) was to make the Hebrews toil hard in manual labor. Normally a population grows more slowly under oppression than in prosperous times. However the opposite took place in the case of the Israelites (Exodus 1:12). Physical oppression also tends to crush the spirit, and in this objective the Egyptians were somewhat successful (Exodus 2:23-24).

Exodus 1:10 should read as follows. "Let us (the entire Egyptian ruling class) deal wisely with them (the Israelites) lest they . . . in the event of war (with enemies, the Hyksos, or any other) . . . join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land." [Note: See Gleason L. Archer Jr., "Old Testament History and Recent Archaeology from Abraham to Moses," Bibliotheca Sacra 127:505 (January-March 1970):24-25.]

This plan remained in effect for some time. It probably took years to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses (Ramses, Rameses), which the Egyptians used to store goods (cf. 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 8:6; 2 Chronicles 17:12). Pithom may be Tell er-Retabeh or Heliopolis, not Tanis; and Raamses may have been Qantir, rather than Tell el-Maskhouta, the popular critical identifications. [Note: See Longman and Dillard, p. 67; Kaiser, p. 289; and Charles F. Aling, "The Biblical City of Ramses," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 25:2 (June 1982):128-37.]

"The name ’Rameses’ for one of the store cities seems to point unquestionably to Rameses II [ca. 1300-1234 B.C.]. But it is probable that this city, which already existed under the Hyksos (the foreigners who ruled Egypt several centuries before the nineteenth dynasty), was rebuilt by Rameses II and that Exodus 1:11 refers to the city by its later name . . . ." [Note: William H. Gispen, Exodus, p. 22. Cf. Wolf, pp. 143-45. See also my note on Genesis 47:11.]

There are several instances of the writer or a later editor using more modern names for older sites in the Pentateuch, such as "Dan" in Genesis 14:14.

"The brick was the staple of Egyptian architecture, as only the temples and palaces were constructed of stone." [Note: F. B. Meyer, Devotional Commentary on Exodus, p. 19.]

This plan failed to reduce the threat that the Israelites posed to Pharaoh, so the Egyptians adopted a second approach.