The 400 Year Memorial of Seti the Great - Ramses II
The 400 Year Inscription at Tanis

"At the top of the monument is a relief, showing Ramses II offering wine to Set. Behind the king stands Seti, THE AUTHOR OF THE MONUMENT..." [Breasted, `Records,' Vol. III, Sec. 539]

This short description by Breasted hides important, chronologically helpful information. The wine Ramses II offers is to the Hyksos god Seth, whom we meet in the words of Balaam where he refers to this gods followers as `the children of Seth', meaning the Amalekites/Hyksos of his days. [Numbers 24:17; For a drawn image of this scene see M. Bietak, `Avaris the Capital of the Hyksos', p.77, Fig. 62] This scene with the god Seth, a god made famous during Hyksos times, strengthens our point that the 400 year stele memorializes the revolution against the Amalekite/Hyksos occupiers of Egypt which was 400 years in the past about the time that Seti the Great/Psammetichus saw the end of his life coming and commissioned his son Ramesses II to dedicate this stele. The stele may be the closest we can come to an Egyptian version for their Independence Day.

The 400 Year Inscription Text:

".....thy ka, O Set, son of Nut, mayest thou grant a happy life following thy ka, to the ka of....[Seti]. Live.... King Ramses II, sovereign, who equips the Two Lands with monuments in his name, so that Re rises in heaven for love of him, King Ramses II. His majesty commanded to make a great stela of granite, in the great name of his fathers, in order that the name of his grandfather, King Menmare, Son of Re: Seti-Merneptah, might be exalted, enduring and abiding forever, like Re, every day.
In the year 400, in the 4th month of the 3rd season, on the 4th day, of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Opehtiset; Son of Re, his beloved: Nubti, whom Harakhte desires to be forever and ever; came the hereditary prince, governor of the (residence) city, vizier, fan-bearer on the right of the king, chief of bowmen, governor of foreign countries, commandant of the fortress of Tharu, chief of the foreign gendarmes, king's scribe, master of horse, chief priest of the Ram-god, lord of Mendes, High Priest of Set, ritual priest of Buto-Upet-Towe, chief of prophets of all gods, Seti, triumphant, son of the hereditary prince, governor of the residence city, vizier, chief of bowmen, governor of foreign countries, commandant of the fortress of Tharu, king's scribe, master of horse, Peramses, triumphant; born of the lady, the musician of Re, Teya, triumphant. He said: `Hail to thee, O Set, son of Nut, great in strength in the barque of millions of years, overthrowing enemies in front of the barque of Re, great in terror, ..... [grant m]e a happy life following thy ka, while I remain in ...."

The event it commemorates is not stated but the freeing of Egypt from foreign occupiers and the start of the 18th Dynasty is truly a worthy event to be referred back to in this way. This is apparently also what Josephus had in mind when he wrote:

The 393 Year Reckoning of Manetho/Josephus

"...Now, from his days [(the house of) Thetmosis at the expulsion of the Hyksos], the reigns of the intermediate kings, according to Manetho, amounted to 393 years, as he says himself, till the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus; the one of whom, Sethos, was called by the other name Egyptus, and the other, Hermeus, by that of Danaus. He also says that Sethos cast the other out of Egypt..." [Josephus, `Against Apion,' Bk. I, Sec. 15]
400 Year Memorial

Could there have been other memorial stela commemorating the same event memorialized in the 400 Year Inscription for Seti the Great?
Would the following memorials have been possible? (Remember, we are using revised dates)
1. a 100 year memorial? 100 years after Saul helped Ahmose and Khamose overcome the Hyksos Amalekites in 1012 BC Pharaoh Thutmose III was the reigning monarch in Egypt. He had no cause to memorialze an event in which an Israelite king had a part in. After all, Thutmose had been plundering the wealth of Israel for several years before 912 BC.
2. a 200 year memorial? 200 years after Saul helped Ahmose and Khamose overcome the Hyksos Amalekites in 1012 BC the Libyan Dynasty ruled in Egypt. There is no reason why they should have memorialzed the establishment of the 18th Dynasty in 812 BC.
3. a 300 year memorial? 300 years after Saul helped Ahmose and Khamose overcome the Hyksos Amalekites in 1012 BC the Assyrians and Pharaoh Horemheb became prominent in Egypt. While Horemheb has his name written next to those of Thutankhamen nothing was found indicating he was interested in the time of Ahmose.
4. a 400 year memorial? It appears that the 400th year after Saul helped Ahmose and Khamose overcome the Hyksos Amalekites in 1012 BC was the only window of opportunity for such a memorial stone to have been commissioned and dedicated. And so it was Seti the Great whose sense of history, national pride and wish to impress on his son Ramses II., soon to become king, the importance not to forget the glorious past of his people and so this attitude became the reason for such a memory to be written on stone.

In synchronizing this history at one of the most formidable Hyksos fortresses with actions occuring in Egypt's neighboring country Israel we reiterate the following. Historians agree that the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt in the days of Ahmose and Khamose1), but the real deliverer of Egypt was that person referred to as the `One' and who must have been a king because he presents medals of valor to outstanding warriors. This identity of the `One' with a king, and King Saul of Israel at that, is an issue conventional authors will not provide. Only revised chronology can bring out these details. We believe that more recent excavations conducted by Manfred Bietak of the University of Vienna, are in error in as much as his identity of the main Hyksos stronghold was not in the Nile Delta, but at the river of Egypt, a most often dry river bed, as seen from Israel. To be sure the Hyksos were present in the Nile delta but the stronghold of Avaris was large enough to protect many warriors for an extended period of time. Unless Avaris/El Arish sites will be excavated we will be non the wiser. The delta sites don't seem to have been of a size to fit that detail. We also showed how Seti the Great is Psammetichus and how his son Ramses II fulfills the role of Necho II of the Greek authors.


1) The name of the ruling king at the time of the expulsion of the Hyksos is stated in the inscription to have been `Opehtiset-Nubti'. Just like Egyptian kings these too were known under different names to different peoples.

The source of the information on the `One' is the Ahmose inscription:

"I followed on foot when he rode abroad in his chariot. One besieged the city of Avaris (El Arish). I showed valor on foot before his majesty ... One fought on the water in the canal (riverbed) of Avaris ... Then there was again fighting in this place; I again fought ... One fought in this (part of) Egypt, south of this city; then I brought away a living captive ... One captured Avaris ... One besieged Sharuhen [s-r-h-n] for 6 years* [and] his majesty took it...."

The indefinite pronoun `one' would not have been used if the Egyptian king had been leading this siege of Sharuhen at the head of the army. Therefore we conclude that the Egyptian king was not the main force in this protracted war but it was a foreign king he is here simply referred to as the `One'.

Instead of saying "His majesty besieged" or "Our troops fought..." the document states that a foreign army led the war against the Hyksos foreign rulers over Egypt.

Egyptian documents never memorialize the achievements of foreign rulers and for this reason the name of the king who destroyed the Hyksos Empire is missing.

But can we determine who this `One' might have been?

Conventionally bound scholars cannot help us in finding who he was, only the revision here presented can do so in a logical way supported by historical sources. Here is the connection we want to present:

"Thus said the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have...
And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telahim, 200,000 footmen, and 10,000 men of Judah.
And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley [nakhal, the bed of a stream or riverbed]." 1.Samuel 15:2-5.
The best geographical indicator we can find is this reference: "...until you are coming to Shur, that is over against Egypt." 1.Samuel 15:7.

In this context we can also say that the well known Hyksos King Apop II was Agog of the Bible. 1.Samuel 15:9.

The fall of the Hyksos fortress of Avaris (El Arish, Sharuhen) was the signal for the demise of the Hyksos/Amalekite Empire. That the king of Israel figures big time in these events has nothing to do with trying to make the role of Israel into a central player of ancient politics. These are just the historical facts before the anti-semitic sentiment of more recent times took shape. So please do not construe this account into a political football of today.

We are not engaging in trying to put Israel into a center position but we cannot ignore the facts of history. That is what we do here - Present ancient history as it really happened.