History of Israel and the Jewish People

Timeline›Conquest & Judges

Merneptah (Egypt)

−1213 · until −1203

Hebrew year: 2548 (ב׳תקמ״ח)

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Head of a statue of Merneptah, the pharaoh whose stele first names Israel, shown in the exhibition Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold, London.
Head of a statue of Merneptah, the pharaoh whose stele first names Israel, shown in the exhibition Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold, London. · Photo by Hyspaosines, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Merneptah was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II and came to the throne already elderly, facing invasions from Libya and the first waves of the Sea Peoples. His victory stele, discovered in 1896, contains the phrase Israel is laid waste, his seed is not, the earliest known mention of Israel in any text outside the Bible. The determinative sign attached to the name marks Israel as a people rather than a city state, unlike the other Canaanite entities listed alongside it. This single line places an entity called Israel in Canaan by roughly −1208 and anchors the entire debate over Israelite origins.

Hebrew year
2548 (ב׳תקמ״ח)
Place
Thebes (Luxor)
Category
Foreign rulers & empires
Part of
Conquest & Judges

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Foreign Rulers