THE
CAPTIVES OF AMENHOTEP II

R. W. Dalman

As Moses hid from Pharaoh, Thutmose III formed an empire in the Levant that would survive for over 200 years. Thutmose III launched the first true Egyptian empire beyond the borders of the nation (Weinstein 1981:7). While his army dominated the Levant, Thutmose III made exaggerated claims about his success. These claims were intended for self-aggrandizement. On a poetic stela found at Karnak, Thutmose III claimed:

I fettered Nubia’s Bowmen by ten thousand thousands, the northerners a hundred thousand captives (Lichtheim 1976:36).

In this text, Thutmose III claimed to have seized a million Nubians and a hundred thousand captives from the Levant. Such exaggerated claims were not uncommon in Egyptian literature. Amenhotep III would claim to have surrounded Egypt’s temples with settlements of Syrian slaves and millions of cattle (Lichtheim 1976:44). In the 19th Dynasty, Ramesses II would claim to have given millions of cattle to a temple in Memphis (Breasted 1955, 3:181). In the 20th Dynasty, Ramesses III would claim to have captured hundreds of thousands of the Sea People, and just as many cattle (Breasted 1955, 3:201–202). These claims were not very accurate. The actual number of captives seized by Thutmose III was significantly lower than a hundred thousand. Between his 23rd and 42nd years, he only seized approximately 5,000 Semitic captives from the Levant.

These captives were described in the tomb inscription of his vizier Rekhmire. He noted that the Semitic captives were forced to make bricks for the temple of Amun at Karnak. The tomb included a depiction of these Semitic brick builders at their task with the following inscriptions:

Men-kheper-Re [Tutmose III] may build a sanctuary (to the gods) in order that they may give him its equivalent return in millions of years… The supervisor says to the builder, “The blocks are good in my hands, and thou canst not upbraid (?)”…The captives which His Majesty brought away for the works of the temple of [Amun]…. Making bricks to build anew the workshops [of Amun] in Karnak (Davies 1943:55).

This was the same lifestyle that was being forced on the Israelites in the northeast delta at that time.

If Israel left Egypt shortly after the death of Thutmose III, the pharaoh of the Exodus would have been Amenhotep II. He ruled approximately from 1452 BC to 1425 BC. In the second year of his reign, he campaigned in Syria to put down a revolt against Egyptian rule. This northern campaign would have occurred only a very few years before an 18th Dynasty date for the Exodus. Amenhotep II carried 800 captives back to Egypt as slaves. Northern campaigns typically brought south less than 1,000 captives from the Levant.

Amenhotep II sent his army north once more in the ninth year of his reign. This northern campaign would have occurred very shortly after the traditional 1446 BC date for an 18th Dynasty Exodus (MT 1 Kgs 6:1). In this campaign, Amenhotep II had quite limited goals. He led his army as far north as Sharon and the Jezreel plain. Amenhotep II wrote an astounding list of captives from this campaign. He listed:

Slaves making bricks for the temple of Amun at Thebes. At the lower left a worker breaks up Nile mud, while another is treading it to the correct consistency after water has been added. The worker in the center carries a bucket of mud to the brick-making area. At the top right another worker forms bricks with a brick mold. Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re, Thebes, ca. 1470–1445 BC.

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Brick mold from Kahun, Egypt, now in the University of Manchester Museum, Manchester, England. This is the type of mold the Israelites used when they were slaves in Egypt, and is still being used by present-day Egyptians in rural areas.

127 chieftains of Retenue, 179 brothers of the chieftains, 3600 Apiru, 15,200 live Shasu, 36,000 Syrians, 15,070 live Nagasuites, 30,652 of their family members, totaling 89,600 and their endless property likewise (Hoffmeier 2000:22).

This was not typical Egyptian exaggeration. Unlike the grandiose claims, Amenhotep II listed the specific number of captives seized from each ethnic group. In this campaign, Amenhotep II claimed to have led south 89,600 captives. This was a huge number of captives. Amenhotep II may actually have approached the exaggerated number of captives claimed by Thutmose III. Amenhotep II’s 89,600 captives from Palestine were more than 100 times the number of captives normally seized from the Levant. If Israel left Egypt during his reign, Amenhotep II may have intended to replace a lost work force by raiding the Levant.

If so, Amenhotep II may have unintentionally aided Israel. The Amalekite bedouin had threatened Israel in Exodus 17:8–13 and Numbers 14:40–45. The Amalekites were one of the bedouin peoples that the Egyptians called “Shasu.” The Egyptian texts associate the Shasu especially with Seir. By seizing 15,200 Shasu captives, Amenhotep II may have lessened the Amalekite threat against Israel. He may also have made it easier for Israel to circle Mt. Seir during their wanderings as Deuteronomy 2:1–5 recorded.

In his rage against Israel, Amenhotep II may well have destroyed any reference to Israel in the Egyptian texts. Earlier 18th Dynasty rulers had destroyed any textual evidence that the Hyksos had occupied and ruled Egypt. When Hatshepsut suddenly died, Thutmose III attempted to erase her name from every text where it could be found. Erasing any reference to Israel after the Exodus would have been consistent with this custom (Wheeler 2002).

Bibliography

Breasted, J. H.

1962 Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol 2: Historical Documents. New York: Russell & Russell, reprint of 1906 edition.

Davies, N. de G.

1943 The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hoffmeier, J.K.

2000 The Memphis and Karnak Stelae of Amenhotep II (2.3). Pp. 19–22 in The Context of Scripture, Vol 2: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World, ed. W.W. Hallo. Leiden: Brill.

Lichtheim, M.

1976 Ancient Egyptian Literature; A Book of Readings, Vol. 2: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Weinstein, J.M.

1981 The Egyptian Empire in Palestine: A Reassessment. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 241:1–28.

Wheeler, G.

2002 Ancient Egypt’s Silence About the Exodus. Andrews University Seminary Studies 40:257–64.

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