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In 1 Kings, Rehoboam is placed in the role of Pharaoh, increasing the people’s heavy labor, while Jeroboam is portrayed as another Moses who tries to free them from harsh labor. This deliberate parallel echoes the Exodus story, where Pharaoh rejected Moses’s plea for freedom and made their work harder.
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Exodus 5:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!” 3 And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” 4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? Return to your labor!”
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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1 Kings 12:3
Hebrew Bible
1 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, for all Israel had gathered in Shechem to make Rehoboam king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news, he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since. 3 They sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole Israelite assembly came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 4 “Your father made us work too hard. Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then return to me.” So the people went away.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Rehoboam's rival Jeroboam is depicted as a second Moses who has come back from Egypt to liberate the people, who suffer under forced labor. He negotiates with Rehoboam as Moses did with Pharaoh. Rehoboam is patterned after the Pharaoh of the Exodus story, increasing the labor he requires from the populace (the yoke). ..."
Coogan, Michael David, and Marc Z. Brettler
The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version
(pp. 518-519) Oxford University Press, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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