by
Damien F. Mackey
“During that long period, the King of Egypt died.
The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out,
and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.
God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites
and was concerned about them”.
Exodus 2:23-25
Here we learn of the death of that ruler of Egypt who had tried to kill Moses in revenge for the latter’s slaying of an Egyptian overseer (Exodus 2:14-15):
The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘What I did must have become known’. When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
He must have been a very long-reigning Pharaoh, since his rule had to encompass some of Moses’ career in Egypt from before his exile in Midian until near to forty years later, when Moses would return to Egypt (Acts 7:29-30).
Co-regency with his predecessor might be able to account for a part of these estimated 50-60 years.
From the semi-legendary Story of Sinuhe, we learn that the Pharaoh inimical to Moses was Sesostris, so-called I, of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty. In the Story of Sinuhe, however, Sesostris does not die, but will later welcome back Sinuhe from his exile.
Sesostris (Kheperkare) is considered to have reigned for 45 years (c. 1971-1926 BC, conventional dating), plus a co-regency with his father, Amememes, so-called I:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sesostris-I
“Sesostris I (flourished 20th–19th century bce) was a king of ancient Egypt who succeeded his father after a 10-year coregency and brought Egypt to a peak of prosperity”.
That presumed 45 years plus 10 or so (= 55 approximately) ought quite adequately cover the biblical span of time in question.
We learn from tradition (Artapanus) that the Pharaoh was one “Chenephres”, whose wife, “Merris”, was the Egyptian princess who drew the baby Moses out of the water.
Now “Chenephres” was jealous of Moses, as, later, Saul would be of David.
I wrote about this in my article:
King “Chenephres” of Egypt - an ancient type of King Saul
(3) King "Chenephres" of Egypt - an ancient type of King Saul | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
…. Keeping in mind King Saul’s wretched treatment of his loyal and faithful servant David, Saul constantly hoping for – and doing his best to engineer - the young man’s demise, consider now what the Jewish historian, Artapanus, wrote about the Egyptian king “Chenephres” and his shabby treatment of Moses:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/which-real-story-moses-was-he-criminal-philosopher-hero-or-atheist-008008
Moses, according to Artapanus, was raised as the son of Chenephres, king of Upper of Egypt. Chenephres thought Moses was his own son – but, apparently, the bond between a father and a son wasn’t enough to keep Chenephres from trying to kill him.
Chenephres sent Moses to lead his worst soldiers into an unwinnable war against Ethiopia, hoping Moses would die in battle. Moses, however, managed to conquer Ethiopia. He became a war hero across Egypt. He also declared the ibis as the sacred animal of the city – starting, in the process, the first of three religions he would found by the end of the story.
He started his second religion when he made it back to Memphis, where he taught people how to use oxen in agriculture and, in the process, started the cult of Apis . He didn’t get to enjoy his new cult for long. His father started outright hiring people to assassinate him, and he had no choice but to leave Egypt. ....
[End of quote]
So, any excuse to kill Moses would have been warmly welcomed by king “Chenephres”, and he found it with Moses’ killing of the Egyptian.
But how to reconcile Sesostris (Kheperkare) with “Chenephres”?
The link is to be found with Chephren of the Fourth Dynasty, who married Meresankh, the “Merris” of Artapanus – the name also occurs as Ankhesenmerire. Chephren must then be “Chenephres”, a name not entirely unlike Sesostris’s Kheperkare.
Chephren is Sesostris.
As Chephren built the Great Sphinx of Giza, so were the kings “Sesostris” - whom I have compressed into just the one king – sphinx builders.
Here (below) is Sesostris so-called III (Kheper, Khakaure) – {reign of 39 years (c. 1878-1839 BC, conventional dating), and also thought to have shared a co-regency with an Amenemes} - represented as a sphinx.
The name “Chenephres” is even better found in Neferkare (Ka-nefer-re - Chenephres), the prenomen of Pepi, so-called II, who is one of my various alter egos for Chephren-Sesostris.
Pepi’s exceedingly long reign (94 years at its upper end, Manetho) more than encompasses the requisite biblical time span for Moses.
Moses was afterwards told that he could return to Egypt because (Exodus 4:19): “… all the men who were seeking your life are dead”.
And the woman?
The Twelfth Dynasty had passed, with a female, Sobeknefure, reigning briefly at the end of it.
Conclusion: The vindictive “King of Egypt” of Exodus 2:23 was, all at once, “Chenephres” (tradition) – Chephren (Khafre) of the Fourth Dynasty – Pepi Neferkare of the Sixth Dynasty – Sesostris (Story of Sinuhe) Kheperkare of the Twelfth Dynasty.
Footnote: I need to add that the Twelfth Dynasty, that so dominated the life of Moses for nearly eight decades, was a Crocodile (Sobek) worshipping dynasty:
Dynastic anomalies surrounding Egyptian Crocodile god, Sobek
(5) Dynastic anomalies surrounding Egyptian Crocodile god, Sobek | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Why, did not its last ruler, the female Sobeknefrure (“Beauty of Sobek”), bear the Crocodile (Sobek) name?
Thus I suspect that the multiplicity of so-called Thirteenth Dynasty kings “Sobekhotep”, were, in actuality, the two mighty Twelfth Dynasty rulers, Amenemes (Amenemhat) - Amenemhat Sobekhotep II - and Sesostris, Neferkhare Sobekhotep IV. The latter, indeed, bears the exact traditional name of Moses’ foster father-in-law, “Chenephres” (Khaneferre):
http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn13/14sobekhotep4.html
“Praenomen Neferkhare “The appearance of Re is beautiful”, sometimes Khaneferre, “Beautiful is the Appearance of Re”.
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