Old Testament: Rulers & Officials

Pharaoh

Name meaning: "Great house" (Egyptian royal title)
Approximately 268 references

A royal title rather than a personal name, Pharaoh designates the king of Egypt throughout the Old Testament — nearly always without identifying which ruler is meant. The best known is the anonymous king of the Exodus, whose repeated refusal to release Israel hardens into a theological portrait: a man who pits his will against God and is destroyed by it. Earlier Pharaohs appear as foils to the patriarchs — the king who takes Sarah into his household (Genesis 12), and the one who elevates Joseph to the second throne of Egypt (Genesis 41). Solomon's reign opens with an Egyptian alliance sealed by marriage to Pharaoh's daughter, a detail the narrative returns to more than once. The reference count covers all uses of the title across the canon.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 4:18, 1 Kings 3:1, 1 Kings 7:8, 1 Kings 9:16, 1 Kings 9:24, 1 Kings 11:1, 1 Kings 11:18, 1 Kings 11:19, 1 Kings 11:20, 1 Kings 11:21 (and 220 more)

1 entries. Reference counts are approximate, based on morphological analysis of the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Hebrew) and Open Greek New Testament.