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MERENPTAH

(Egyp. Mr-n-pth)

Merenptah facing Re-Horakhty, the evening form of the sun-god; a conventional scene at the opening of all the Ramesside royal tombs. Wall painting from tomb of Merenptah, West Thebes (F. J. Yurco)

Pharaoh of Egypt 1212-1202 b.c.; the 13th son of Rameses II and son of Queen Isis-nofret I. From early age he was trained as a soldier, and late in his father’s reign served as a military general in Egypt. He married a daughter of his famous brother Kha-em-waset I, named Isis-nofret (II). They had several known sons, including Sety-merenptah, his successor, another Kha-em-waset (II), and possibly also Amenmesse, who usurped the throne, most likely at Merenptah’s death.

Already aged nearly 60 at his accession, Merenptah nonetheless defended Egypt militarily against several major threats. First, he led a campaign into Canaan, probably in regnal year 2-3, against Ashkelon, Gezer, Yanoʾam, and, recorded for the first time in history, the people Israel. The campaign is recorded on his famed “Israel” stela (Cairo 34025) and in a series of battle reliefs at the Karnak temple. The battle reliefs depict the three cities and a battle in the open, which most probably depicts Israel. Following this campaign, Merenptah posted Egyptian troops in the highlands of Canaan, evidently to deter the Israelites’ efforts to break out into the low country. A papyrus documents the Egyptians’ tight control over the boundary between Egypt and the Ways of Horus, the name given the road with its fortified wells across Sinai. This explains why the fleeing Israelites took the southern route through Sinai. Merenptah’s stela and battle reliefs unequivocally show that by his reign the Israelites had already departed Egypt, making his father, Rameses II, the likely pharaoh of Exodus.

Merenptah next had to face an attack from the west, along the Wadi Natrun by the allied Libyans and Sea Peoples. Simultaneously, the Nubians revolted in the south. Merenptah defeated the enemy alliance near Memphis, and sent them fleeing back to Libya. As his long inscription at Karnak recounts, the Sea Peoples had interfered with his grain shipments to the Hittites, with whom Egypt had been allied since the epic peace treaty signed by Rameses II and Hattusilis III in 1258. The Sea Peoples had evidently shifted to their second phase of activity, sacking cities, as the Homeric epics record, and attacking the imperial states. The casualties stand in sober contrast to the inflated counts of other pharaohs, or the exaggerated numbers claimed in the Exodus account.

Merenptah conducted a major two-year-long inventory of the holdings of all Egypt’s temples. He did not build extensively, using vacant wall space to record his victories. His funerary temple in western Thebes was largely built by quarrying away Amenhotep III’s temple. So too, the “Israel” stela was usurped from Amenhotep III, who is still depicted on the front side.

Overall, Merenptah’s reign reflects a successful defense of Egypt against foreign threats and revolts, coupled with continued prosperity at home. His measures in Canaan helped preserve the Egyptian Empire intact until Rameses III took over.

Bibliography. K. A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant (Warminster, 1983); F. J. Yurco, “Merenptah’s Canaanite Campaign,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23 (1986): 189-215; “3,200-Year-Old Pictures of Israelites Found in Egypt,” BARev 16/5 (1990): 20-38.

Frank J. Yurco

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MERENPTAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)