The Victory Song of Merneptah, Israel and the People of Palestine

Abstract

This article discusses the nature of the association that can be established between the Merneptah stele and the later history of the region of Palestine and biblical Israel. This study examines aspects of the hymn’s rhetoric and literary metaphors, and discusses, among other things, the themes of Merneptah’s transcendent greatness and his mythic roles as savior of Memphis, universal mediator of divine grace and guardian of peace in terms of his divine ability to control destiny. In the hymn’s central movement, these stock tropes center on the theme of renewal. The final movement is not a song recounting Palestine’s conquest, but rather closes the hymn of victory over the Libyans with an idyllic portrayal of the ‘peace’, with which Merneptah has reestablished creation. His song of the nine bows celebrates the pharaoh’s universal patronage with illustrative reference to the region and towns of Palestine: Gaza, Ashkelon, Gezer and Yeno’am, which now belong to Egypt. Israel, metaphorically portrayed as the land of Hurru’s former husband, has been replaced by Merneptah’s patronage in a manner comparable to the well-known role that Yahweh plays in Hosea and Ezekiel as Jerusalem and Samaria’s Ba’al. Regionally, the geographical region referenced by the eponymic use of the name Israel in the stele corresponds with the Saul tradition’s Philistine area.

The Jeroboam Story in the (Re)Formulation of Israelite Identity: Evaluating the Literary-Ideological Purposes of 1 Kings 11–14

“…26 For a background on the Merneptah Stele, see Hjelm and Thompson 2002;Hasel 1994;Ahlström and Edelman 1985;and Stager 1985. 27 Grabbe 2007: 146-49.…”

The Jeroboam Story in the (Re)Formulation of Israelite Identity: Evaluating the Literary-Ideological Purposes of 1 Kings 11–14

“…26 For a background on the Merneptah Stele, see Hjelm and Thompson 2002;Hasel 1994;Ahlström and Edelman 1985;andStager 1985. 27 Mayes 2010: 135;Clancy 1999: 16-17;Ussishkin 2007: 306;10 JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES of the memory of Shishak eventually attached to Jerusalem (so that Jerusalem assumes the status of this significant site)?…”

Merneptah’s ‘Israel’ and the Absence of Origins in Biblical Scholarship

“…Because the Egyptians could also represent the Hebrew zayin , the resulting construction could legitimately be understood as ‘an inexperienced scribe’s way of rendering’ Yezreel, the specific valley in question (Margalith 1990: 229). While the strained analogies and questionable vocalizations on which Margalith’s thesis ultimately depends have been exposed by a variety of scholars in recent years (Kitchen 1996: 59; Helck 1971; Baumgartner and Stamm 1990: 387; Hasel 1994: 45-47), it is an interpretation that Hjelm and Thompson (2002: 3-28) have nevertheless seen fit to resurrect. What makes their largely literary and metaphorical analysis worthy of mention here is its insistence that the eponymic usage of the name ‘Israel’ in the stele designates a geographic rather than a sociopolitical entity.…”