I still remember my fifth grade
rebbe, Rabbi A. Y. Berman, asking the one-hundred-dollar question: Why does the Torah sometimes refer to the Egyptian monarch as
Melech Mitzrayim (“the King of Egypt”) and sometimes as
Pharaoh (“the Pharaoh”)? The term
Melech Mitzrayim appears in the Bible close to fifty times, while the word
Pharaoh appears a whopping 274 times! In six cases, both names are used together:
Pharaoh Melech Mitzrayim (Ex. 6:11; 6:13; 6:29; 14:8, I Kgs. 3:1, and Ezek. 29:2). Why does the Bible sometimes use one term, sometimes the other and sometimes both?
As you might know, Pharaoh is not a personal name, but rather it is a title held by the King of Egypt. Rashi (to Ps. 34:1 and Ezra 6:14) writes that every king of Egypt is called Pharaoh (in contrast, Radak to Gen. 26:9 writes that