Below are the five named pharaohs (followed by a list of unnamed pharaohs) which appear in the Old Testament.
(1) HOPHRA: This pharaoh’s name means “The Heart of Ra Endures.” Ra was the Egyptian god of the sun. Herodo-tus (II, 161) calls Hophra “Apries,” and reports that he reigned in Egypt for 25 years. Regarding another alternative to Hophra’s name the Septuagint lists him as Ouaphre′ at Jr 51:30, which corresponds to Jr 44:30 in most translations.
(2) NECHO(H): As a contemporary of King Josiah of Judea (2Ch 35:20–36:4; 2Ki 23:29-35), Pharaoh Necho eventually suffered defeat at the hands of the Babylonians with Nebu-chadnezzar leading the charge. Herodotus (II, 158, 159; IV, 42) records that Psammetichus (Psammetichos, Psamtik I) was Necho’s father.
(3)
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Tirhakah, a Black Ethiopian pharaoh who ruled Egypt, was a contemporary of King Hezekiah, and came to his aid when Assyrian King Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem. (2Ki 19:8, 9; Isa 37:8, 9)
Without mentioning Tirhakah by name, one Assyrian inscription says that Sennacherib Egyptian forces and cap-tured “the charioteers of the king of Ethiopia.”
And regarding Esarhaddon, the next Assyrian king after Sennacherib, he bragged about his conquest of Egypt, boast-ing: “Its king, Tirhakah, I wounded five times with arrow-shots and ruled over his entire country.”
Esarhaddon’s son and successor, Ashurbanipal, experi-enced Tirhakah’s revolt against Assyria. But, Ashurbanipal is quoted as saying that “the terror of the (sacred) weapon of Ashur, my lord, overcame Tirhakah where he had taken ref-uge and he was never heard of again.” (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 1974, edited by J. Pritchard, pp. 287, 288, 290, 295)
PHARAOHS (ANONYMOUS): The Biblical record introduces a number of pharaohs sans their proper names. These anonymous pharaohs