This chapter talks about Egypt from the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty till the death of Ramesses III. To Sethos I, who succeeded to the throne in 1318 BC, there fell the task of restoring Egypt to the standing of a Great Power for which he undertook a series of foreign campaigns. At home in Egypt it was the task of Sethos I to round off the work set on foot by Horemheb in restoring the ravages of the Amarna episode. Ramesses III came to the throne in circa 1198 BC. In the period from Year 5 to Year 11 inclusive there were three major wars. The war of Year 5 was against the Libyans, who in a coalition of Libya, Meshwesh and an unknown tribe named Seped, were again contemplating a descent into Egypt. With the death of Ramesses III the glory of Egypt departed, and the nation was never again an imperial power.

The only historical sources at our disposal recording the settlement of the Israelite patriarchs in Canaan, their stay there, Israel's sojourn in Egypt, the exodus and the wanderings in the Sinai peninsula and east of the 'Arabah and the Dead Sea are the narratives in the Pentateuch. Akkadian and Hittite texts of the first half of the second millennium, thought to refer to military events recorded in Genesis xiv; documents from Nuzi mentioning legal customs which are, or appear, similar to those presupposed in the stories of the patriarchs. However, these are ambiguous in interpretation, and thus they can be adduced only as supplementing the story to be obtained from the Pentateuch narratives. The arrangement of the stories in the Pentateuch based on a genealogical order that appears chronological, or in the form of itineraries, has no claim to be in itself truly historical. Each narrative should be examined to see to which period or which area its subject belongs.