A land situated along the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean, bordered by the Red Sea on the east and Libya on the west. Its southern boundary altered in different periods. The territory falls naturally into two parts: Lower Egypt, which included the Nile Delta, and Upper Egypt, from Cairo southwards. In biblical times, as now, populated areas closely followed the Nile valley and its delta. Though its influence waxed and waned according to the rise and fall of successive empires and dynasties following the ongoing rivalry between Lower and Upper Egypt, it was throughout the biblical period, one of the great empires of the Middle East, whose only rival was in Mesopotamia (Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia). Indeed the history of Palestine in biblical times must be seen against the background of that rivalry. On various occasions the Egyptians invaded and occupied Palestine. Many excavations attest their occupation.
Throughout the biblical period the relationship between Egypt and Israel remained unique. Egypt plays such a central part in biblical history that the name occurs more than 750 times in the Scriptures while "pharaoh" (the title of the Egyptian ruler) is mentioned over 200 times. However, only in a very few instances is the pharaoh mentioned by name. There are more details and information on the life and customs of the Egyptians in the Scriptures than on any other external country or people and several Egyptian words and titles found their way into the Bible. For example Joseph is given the Egyptian name "Zaphnath-Paaneah", ("the god speaks and he [the one who bears the name] lives", Gen 41:45). Even the name of Moses is derived from the Egyptian verb "to be born".
The biblical image of Egypt is a contradictory one. On the one hand, it was the country where the Children of Israel were held in bondage and treated as slaves until divine intervention led to their miraculous escape through the Red Sea and eventually to the conquest of the land of Canaan. Because of this, its memory – as conserved for example in the Passover service – was execrated. On the other hand it was frequently a hospitable land, offering sanctuary and refuge in time of need. Very often the Children of Israel turned to Egypt in periods of crisis or adversity, looking for a safe haven or, more simply, for food during a famine. "Now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land" (Gen 12:10). He was made welcome and when he went back to the land of Canaan he "was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold" (Gen 13:2). Another famine drove Joseph's brothers to Egypt, following the advice of their father Jacob: "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and note die." (Gen 42.2). As the famine continued in the land of Canaan, Jacob and his whole family settled in Egypt under the protection of Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph had been kindly received by Pharaoh and had risen to an exalted position. Pharaoh "set him over all the land of Egypt" (Gen 41:43) and gave him the daughter of a high priest for a wife. It was indeed the prosperity and expansion of the Children of Israel in Egypt after the death of Joseph (who, like his father, was embalmed after the custom of the Egyptians, Gen 50:2, 26) which led a new pharaoh, who had not known Joseph, to fear for his regime: "And he said to his people: 'Look, the people of the Children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us" (Ex 1:9-10).
The story of the ensuing plight of the Children of Israel in Egypt; the long years of bondage and suffering, the emergence of Moses as a leader, the ten plagues, the hurried meal of lamb and unleavened bread (Ex 12:3-20) which the Jews commemorate each year at Passover, the Exodus from Egypt by way of the Red Sea (Ex chap. 14), and the wandering in the Sinai desert where the Children of Israel received the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic law, were basic events in the crystallization of the Israelite people and the Jewish religion. "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians' " (I Sam 10:18); "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers" (Judg 2:1 etc.).
However, there was no lasting enmity between the Hebrews and the Egyptians following the Exodus. Indeed when Moses set up the statutes which were to rule the Children of Israel, the Egyptians were given a more favorable status than the other peoples: "You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land; the children of the third generation born to them may enter the congregation of the Lord" (Deut 23:7-8).
No reference is to be found in Egyptian sources to the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt or to their exodus. It has been suggested that the period of the Hyksos, a group of Semitic peoples who overran Egypt after the destruction of the Middle Kingdom and who ruled c. 1720-1580 B.C., might provide the background for the story of Joseph, both because of the Semitic affinity and the appropriate chronology. The close involvement of Egypt at a slightly later period with the land of Canaan is clearly seen in the El Amarna Letters (1375-1300 B.C.). The pharaoh of the Exodus has been identified by many scholars with Rameses II (1198-1166 B.C.) of the 20th Dynasty.
The first mention of the people of Israel appears in Egyptian literature in the so-called "Israel Stele", when Pharaoh Merneptah (1224-1214) declares that "Israel is laid waste, he has no offspring".
After the establishment of the Monarchy, relations between Egypt and Israel fluctuated. For long periods they were friendly. King Solomon married a daughter of Pharaoh, who brought the town of Gezer as her dowry (I Kgs 9:16); but towards the end of his reign, his arch-rival Jeroboam found refuge in Egypt (I Kgs 11:40). After Jeroboam became king of Israel (I Kgs 12:20), the Egyptian ruler Sheshonk I (935-914 B.C.), the biblical Shishak, attacked Rehoboam's southern kingdom and destroyed numerous cities there (I Kgs 14:25; II Chr chap. 12).
After the fall of the Kingdom of Israel, Judah was increasingly drawn into the power struggle between Egypt and the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Josiah was killed on 609 B.C. in a futile attempt to check the advance of Pharaoh Necho through his kingdom. His successor Jehoahaz was deported by the Egyptians who enthroned Jehoiakim in his place (II Kgs 23:34). King Hezekiah allied himself with Egypt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib despite the warning of the latter's general, "You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt�" (Is 36:6). Zedekiah sided with Egypt in the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar; but the Egyptian attempts failed and Judah was overrun by the Babylonian armies (II Kgs chap. 25). After the destruction of Jerusalem, some of the inhabitants who had not been sent into exile fled to Egypt, not heeding the warnings of Jeremiah: "For thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: 'as my anger and my fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured on you when you enter Egypt'" (Jer 42:18). However, Jeremiah too was forced to go to Egypt where he rebuked the Israelites for adopting the Egyptian worship of the "queen of the heaven" (Jer chap. 44). The Persians under Cambyses later conquered Egypt (525 B.C.) as they had the whole of the Middle East. The country became a vassal of the Persians, then of Alexander the Great, and then of the Greeks and of the Romans. The Jewish community, dating from the time of Jeremiah, prospered and grew rapidly until it numbered a million in the 1st century A.D. Here the Bible was first translated into Greek (the Septuagint, 3rd century B.C.).
In the NT, Egypt once more was a place of sanctuary. Joseph in Bethlehem was awakened by the Angel of the Lord who told him: "Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word" (Matt 2:13). Thus the infant Jesus escaped from the Massacre of the Innocents (Matt 2:16).
Concordance
Gen 12:10-12,14; 13:1, 10; 15:18; 16:1, 3; 21:9, 21; 25:12, 18; 26:2; 37:25,28, 36; 39:1-2,5; 40:1, 5; 41:8, 19, 29-30, 33-34, 36,41, 43-46, 48,53-57; 42:1-3; 43:2, 15, 32; 45:2, 4, 8-9,13, 18-20, 23,25-26; 46:3-4,6-8, 20, 26-27,34; 47:6, 11,13-15, 20-21,26-30; 48:5; 50:3, 7, 11,14, 22, 26. Ex 1:1, 5, 8, 13,15, 17-19; 2:11-12, 14,19, 23; 3:7-12,16-22; 4:18-21; 5:4, 12; 6:5-7,11, 13, 26-29; 7:3-5, 11, 18-19, 21-22, 24; 8:5-7, 16-17,21, 24, 26; 9:4, 6, 9, 11,18, 22-25; 10:2, 6-7, 12-15, 19, 21-22; 11:1, 3-7, 9; 12:1, 12-13,17, 23, 27, 29-30, 33, 35-36,39-42, 51; 13:3, 8-9, 14-18; 14:4-5, 7-13, 17-18, 20,23-27, 30-31; 15:26; 16:1, 3,6, 32; 17:3; 18:1, 8-10; 19:1, 4; 20:2; 22:21; 23:9,15; 29:46; 32:1, 4, 7-8,11-12, 23; 33:1; 34:18. Lev 11:45; 18:3; 19:34,36; 22:33, 43; 24:10; 25:38,42, 55; 26:13,45. Num 1:1; 3:13, 17; 9:1; 11:5, 18, 20; 13:22; 14:2-4,13, 19, 22; 15:41; 20:5,15-16; 21:5; 22:5, 11; 23:22; 24:8; 26:4, 59; 32:11; 33:1, 3-4, 38; 34:5. Deut 1:27, 30; 4:20, 34, 37,45-46; 5:6, 15; 6:12, 21-22; 7:8, 15, 18; 8:14; 9:7, 12,26, 10:19, 22; 11:3-4, 10; 13:5, 10; 15:15; 16:1, 3,6, 12; 17:16; 20:1; 23:4; 24:9, 18, 22; 25:17; 26:5-6,8; 28:27, 60,68; 29:2, 16,25; 34:11. Josh 2:10; 5:4-6, 9; 9:9; 13:3; 15:4, 47; 24:4-7, 14, 17, 32. Judg 2:1, 12; 6:8-9, 13; 10:11; 11:13,16; 19:30. I Sam 2:27; 4:8; 6:6; 8:8; 10:18; 12:6, 8; 15:2, 6-7; 27:8; 30:11,13. II Sam 7:6, 23; 23:21. I Kgs 3:1; 4:21, 30; 6:1; 8:9, 16, 21,51, 53, 65; 9:9, 16; 10:28-29; 11:17-18,21, 40; 12:2,28; 14:25. II Kgs 7:6; 17:4, 7, 36; 18:21, 24; 21:15; 23:29,34; 24:7; 25:26. I Chr 2:34; 11:23; 13:5; 17:21. II Chr 1:16-17; 5:10; 6:5; 7:8,22; 9:26, 28; 10:2; 12:2-3,9; 20:10; 26:8; 35:20; 36:3-4. Ezra 9:1. Neh 9:9, 18. Ps 68:31; 78:12,43, 51; 80:8; 81:5, 10; 105:23, 38; 106:7; 21; 114:1; 135:8-9; 136:10. Prov 7:16. Is 7:18; 10:24, 26; 11:11, 15-16; 19:1-4, 12-25; 20:3-5; 23:5; 27:12-13; 30:2-3, 7; 31:1, 3; 36:6, 9; 43:3; 45:14; 52:4. Jer 2:6, 18,36; 7:22, 25; 9:26; 11:4, 7; 16:14; 23:7; 24:8; 25:19; 26:21-23; 31:32; 32:20-21; 34:13; 37:5, 7; 41:17; 42:14-19; 43:2,7, 11-13; 44:1,8, 12-15, 24,26-28, 30; 46:2, 8, 11,13-14, 17, 19-20, 24-25. Lam 5:6. Ezek 16:26; 17:15; 19:4; 20:5-10,36; 23:3, 8,19, 21, 27; 27:7, 29:2-3,6, 9-10, 12-14,19-20; 30:4, 6,8-11, 13, 15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 25-26; 31:2; 32:2, 12,15-16, 18. Dan 9:15; 11:8, 42-43. Hos 2:15; 7:11, 16; 8:13; 9:3, 6; 11:1, 5,11; 12:1, 9,13; 13:4. Joel 3:19. Amos 2:10; 3:1, 9; 4:10; 8:8; 9:5,7. Mic 6:4; 7:15. Nah 3:9. Hag 2:5. Zech 10:10-11; 14:18-19. Matt 2:13-15, 19. Acts 2:10; 7:9-12, 15, 17, 22,24, 28, 34, 36,39-40; 13:17; 21:38. Heb 3:16; 8:9; 11:26-27, 29. Jude v. 5. Rev 11:8, 29.
