The Merneptah Stele

1. Introduction

During one of his numerous excavations in Egypt, Sir Flinders Petrie discovered the Merneptah Stele (also known as the Israel Stele) “in  the ruins of [Pharaoh] Merneptah’s funerary temple in western Thebes in 1896.”^[1] Originally manufactured during the reign of Amenophis III, Merneptah “appropriated and reused the reverse side of the stele”^[2] for the purpose of recording his military victories over Libya and the Peoples of the Sea.^[3] Furthermore, an earlier campaign focused on the region of Canaan^[4] received recognition.

Without question the most intriguing portion of the text centers around a people group designated as Ysri3l., or Israel.^[5] Dated to 1209^[6] or 1207 B.C.^[7] the Merneptah Stele has proven to be the earliest extra-biblical reference to Israel^[8] during the period of the Judges (ca. 1300 B.C.-1050 B.C.). 

2. The Context of the Merneptah Stele

Before Merneptah (1213-1203 B.C.) sat on the Egyptian throne his father Ramesses II (1279-1213 B.C.), the mightiest of the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaohs,   led Egypt into its last period of prosperity. In the first part of his reign Ramesses II captained numerous military campaigns and undertook massive building projects to perpetuate the belief that he was “Egypt’s greatest king”^[9] of all time. Known for his overinflated ego, the pharaoh celebrated fourteen sed-festivals besides erecting an expansive statue entitled “Ramesses-the-god” in his eighth year.^[10] Evidence indicates that Ramesses II may have reached almost one hundred years of age before death claimed him.^[11]

As Ramesses II began to experience a decline in health and vitality due to his advanced age, Egypt likewise deteriorated: "The weakness of the government in the last years of Rames[s]es II had allowed the whole of the west side of the Delta to fall into the hands of foreigners, and on the east side the Egyptians were being     rapidly ousted by foreign settlers.  Egypt was in danger of losing the whole Delta, first by peaceful penetration, then by armed invasion."^[12] When Merneptah, the thirteenth son of Ramesses II, finally gained full control of Egypt in his fifties,^[13]  he was “almost immediately faced with [a geopolitical] crisis which had been developing for some years.”^[14]

After a peaceful reign of five years^[15] Merneptah struck out against the enemies of Egypt with fierce vengeance. The Merneptah Stele details the aftermath of the collision of Egyptian might against Libyan and Asiatic forces: "The kings lie prostrate, saying shalom! Not one raises his head among the Nine Bows. A desert is Libya, Hatti is scorched. Plundered is Gaza, with every evil, Carried off is Ashkelon, Bound is Gezer, Yenoam is as one not existing. Israel is laid waste, his seed is no more; Hurru has become a widow for Egypt." Although first regarded by historians as “poetic hyperbole,” recent thought suggests that Merneptah “would be unlikely to adopt [the] title [of Subduer of Gezer] . . . if it were not soundly based on fact.”^[16] Support for a literal victory stems from the fact that Merneptah presented himself as “the savior and patron of the oppressed in all lands.”^[17]

3. The Significance of Israel's Name in the Merneptah Stele

A number of ironclad statements can be drawn from the fact that the Merneptah Stele makes reference to Israel. First, the Israelites “were already calling themselves Israel in about 1211 to 1209 B.C.E.”^[18] This is significant for dating the arrival of Israel into the land of Canaan.

Since Israel was already in Canaan in the thirteenth century B.C., it becomes “unlikely that Israel was a newcomer to the scene at that time.”^[19] The very fact that Merneptah saw fit to include Israel in his description of his conquests indicates that he believed Israel to be a major player in Palestine during his reign. If Israel had only settled in the land a matter of decades earlier this would hardly be the case. Thus, the tribes “were sufficiently amalgamated to be referred to as ‘Israel’”^[20] rather than being “recently established”^[21] in the region.

Although, Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush believed the Merneptah Stele to demonstrate that the Exodus “must have taken place a few years earlier,”^[22] the opposite is true. Proponents of the late date for the Exodus hold that when Ramesses II died,  Moses returned to Egypt and Merneptah consequently became the pharaoh of the Exodus. Eugene Miller explained the impossibility of this view: 

"No manipulation of the evidence can squeeze the obviously long period of the judges into seventy or even one hundred years.  Besides, Merneptah himself led a campaign     into upper Canaan in his fifth year . . . in the course of which he claims to have met and defeat Israel.  It is obviously impossible for Israel in the course of but five years to have escaped Egypt, spent time at Mount Sinai, wandered in the wilderness, conquered Sihon and Og, and entered and established herself in Canaan!  Advocates of the late date must desregard all normal and accepted historiographical method and rearrange and reinterpret the only available documentation–the Old Testament itself–if their case is to be made".^[23]As a result, “the date for the Exodus would have to be placed much earlier than the time of Ramesses II.”^[24] The only other pharaoh who could have lived long to qualify as the pharaoh of the Exodus would be Thutmose III (1479-1425 B.C.).

In the final analysis, not one detail of the Merneptah Stele confutes that Israel inhabited Palestine during Merneptah’s reign. Many of the issues discussed above may be individually attacked, but taken together they form an indestructible wall of defense that validates the Old Testament account. Yet again, an archaeological discovery demonstrates the trustworthiness of the Word of God.

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^[1]Yurco, 34.

^[2]Rainey, “Can You Name the Panel with the Israelites?”, 58.

^[3]Breasted, 466.

^[4]David M. Howard, Joshua, The New American Commentary, vol. 5, E. Ray Clendenen, gen. ed. (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), 23.

^[5]William Sandford Lasor, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush, Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 59.

^[6]Merrill, 69.

^[7]Robert Kirk Kilpatrick, “Against the Gods of Egypt: An Examination of the Narrative of the Ten Plagues in the Light of Exodus 12:12,” Ph.D. diss., Mid-American Baptist Theological Seminary, 1995, 120.

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^[8]Anson F. Rainey, “Can You Name the Panel with the Israelites?” Biblical Archaeology Review 17 (Nov.-Dec. 1991): 59.

^[9]Frank J. Yurco, “3,200 Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt,” Biblical Archaeology Review 16, no. 5 (1990): 26.

^[10]Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1985), 221.

^[11]Yurco, 27.

^[12]James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 16. Since the Egyptian language contains no l sound, the symbol for r is substituted.  “In some words, r seems to have been pronounced like English l as in let.”

^[13]John J. Bimson, “Merenptah’s Israel and Recent Theories of Israelite Origins,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 49 (Fall 1991): 13.

^[14]Michael G. Hasel, “Israel in the Merneptah Stela,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296 (Nov. 1994): 45.

^[15]Alfred J. Hoerth, Gerald L. Mattingly, and Edwin M. Yamauchi, eds. Peoples of the Old Testament World, with a foreword by Alan Millard (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 278.

^[16]An Introduction to Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Publications Ltd., 1979), 66.

^[17]Ian Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 301.

^[18]Rosalie and Antony E. David, A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 119.

^[19]Margaret A. Murray, The Splendour that was Egypt, rev. ed. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977), 44.

^[20]Hoerth, Mattingly, and Yamauchi, 278.

^[21]An Introduction to Egypt, 67.

^[22]Murray, 44.

^[23]Yurco, 28-29.

^[24]Hjelm and Thompson, 8.