First attested to in the 10th century Chronicles of Moses, a midrash relates how Pharaoh had lions guarding the palace entrance, tearing up any unwanted visitors. Due to its popularity, it is also preserved in a 15th century mahzor, as part of its Aramaic targum to the Song of the Sea.
Samuel must piece together YHWH’s intention to anoint David. Elisha’s plan to save a widow and her sons unfolds in fits and starts.
Among Solomon’s many foreign wives, only Pharaoh’s daughter receives individualized attention—but why does her story center on Solomon’s building projects?
Canaanite kings, such as Abimilki of Tyre, write to Pharaoh to ask for help and complain about rivals. Notable is Aziru, king of Amurru, who abandons his loyalty to Egypt in favor of the Hittites.
Joseph sustains his family from the official Egyptian storehouses, unlike the Egyptian population, whose produce and livestock were taxed by a fifth, and who were forced into corvée labor to keep from starving. Then a new king arose who did not honor that agreement.
Before the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, Ezekiel condemns Judah's alliance with Egypt, depicting Egypt and its pharaoh as a monster that YHWH will destroy. The prophet accuses Judah of harlotry with Egypt and blames their foolish alliance on their resurgent worship of the Egyptian gods they adopted during their sojourn there.
In ancient Egyptian belief, a person’s heart was weighed after death to determine whether they are righteous or wicked. By referring to Pharaoh’s heart as heavy, the exodus story originally expressed the extent of his guilt.
“I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours” ― Bob Dylan
Jacob berates Joseph when he hears his second dream: “Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to you?” (Genesis 37:10) Rachel, his mother, was dead. What then did the dream mean?
The sister-wife story of Abraham and Sarah in Egypt reworks the sister-wife story of Isaac and Rebekah in Gerar. The passage is an intertextual bricolage, composed to have Abraham, the paradigmatic “first Israelite,” personally experience the nation's core redemptive event.
Egyptian artists depicted their northern Levantine neighbors as prisoners or warriors being smitten, as dignitaries presenting tribute, and even as slaves working on royal building projects. This gives us a glimpse of what Levantines looked like in this period from an Egyptian perspective, including, perhaps, those who later identified as Israelites.
Egyptian officials, including Pharaoh, are kind and wise. Joseph shaves his beard, adopts Egyptian clothing, takes an Egyptian name, and marries the daughter of an Egyptian priest—all without any hint of disapproval from the text.
After commissioning Moses at the burning bush, God commissions Moses again in Midian, and then again on his way to Egypt. In this third commission, God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Let My son go, that he may worship Me, yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your firstborn son” (Exod 4:22-23). How does this narrative fit into the exodus story?
YHWH tells Moses to go see Pharaoh in the morning by the Nile (Exodus 7:15). Why was he there? Did Pharaoh take a daily stroll by the Nile? Did he use the Nile as a privy, or worship it? Perhaps a literary approach may be more fruitful.
It seems unethical for God to deny Pharaoh free will and then punish him for his actions. Rashi, Nahmanides, and Maimonides all struggle with this problem, and each assumes that even Pharaoh deserves to be treated fairly.
The change in usage over time and what this tells us about the biblical text.
Exodus narrates three distinct conceptions of God’s relationship to Pharaoh’s stubbornness: God was surprised, God knew beforehand, and God was the direct cause. The final conception reflects the Priestly redaction of the Torah, whose authors were unwilling to leave the destiny of the plagues up to Pharaoh’s own heart.
The free-will conundrum of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart—a supplementary approach.
