Exodus 1:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now there arose up a new king, &c. which knew not Joseph— To know, in the sacred Scripture, signifies often, to love, to regard, approve. See Hosea 2:8. Amos 3:2 compared with Psalms 1:6; Psalms 31:7. Matthew 25:12. In Joshua 2:10 it is said, There arose another generation who knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel; that is evidently, who regarded not the Lord; as here it must mean a new king, who regarded not Joseph, had no grateful remembrance of the eminent services he had done to Egypt, and was utterly averse to his system of politics. The Chaldee renders it, who confirmed not the decrees of Joseph. It is probable that this new king might be of another family; for Diodorus tells us, that the ancient kings of Egypt were chosen by the people, not so much with respect to birth as merit: and some writers are of opinion (as we have had occasion before to observe, Genesis 50:22.) that Joseph supported his credit under four kings; and that this, who succeeded them, being a foreigner, had heard nothing of him, nor of his administration. But the passage will be sufficiently clear, if we understand a king, different from him who had raised Joseph, and who was regardless of what had passed in the former reigns, and inattentive to the obligations due to Joseph. This we need not wonder at after so many years, when Ahasuerus could so soon forget Mordecai, who had lately saved his life, Esther 2:21-23. Though it must be owned, that had Joseph's merit been ever so fresh in their memory, yet the conduct of a jealous and despotic prince had nothing in the present instance strange or uncommon, since it would rather have been a prodigy, if his gratitude to a man, who had been dead above fifty years, had prevented his taking some arbitrary and cruel measures, in order to secure his kingdom against the danger it seemed threatened with from a people who, from a single family, were become such a formidable host. The religion of the Israelites, so opposite to the Egyptian idolatry; their prosperity, their union, their valour, their riches, their strength; all these, in the eye of such a prince, would seem to justify the measures he took against them. Even in these modern times, some Christian princes, so called, have taken precautions as cruel against their own natural subjects, of whose fidelity and attachment they had the strongest proofs; and yet these persecutions have been justified, nay, canonized, while Pharaoh's have been branded with the worst of epithets. Critics vary much in their opinions concerning the name of this Egyptian king; some saying that it was Ramesses-Miamum; others Amenophis; and others Salatis; whose government, Dr. Shuckford says, was so despotic, that many families fled from under it out of Egypt; among whom, he thinks, were Cecrops, Erichthonius, and the father of Cadmus.