**RAMSES** («Râ has generated him») II. – Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, son of Seti I (Sethos) and Queen Tuya, reigned for 67 years from 1299 to 1233 B.C. (cf. Flavius Josephus, *Against Apion*, I, 15, 26, 32).
He continued his father’s work of reclaiming Egypt’s territories in Palestine and Syria, possibly employing mercenaries from Lycia, Dardania, Mysia, Sardis, and others. He won a famous battle at Kadesh (Qidsa) on the Orontes against the Hittite king Muwatalli (Mutallu), likely the first recorded maneuver battle in history. This victory, along with the pharaoh, is celebrated in the Egyptian poem of Pentaur, of which papyri and an inscription survive. Despite his well-earned triumph, R. II did not subdue the conquered land until after another 16 years of war against rebels, until he concluded (1290) a peace and friendship treaty with the new Hittite king Hattusilis. The text of this treaty survives in hieroglyphs on an inscription in the Temple of Amun at Karnak and another in the funerary sanctuary of his temple at ‘Adb el-Qurnah, as well as in cuneiform on a tablet from Boğazköy. The pact was sealed by the marriage of R. II to a daughter of Hattusilis; the sculptors of the portico of Abu Simbel reproduced the scene of the meeting between father-in-law and son-in-law on this occasion. R. II was buried in the Valley of the Kings at Biban el-Moluk, but his mummy is now in the Cairo Museum. Countless and grandiose are the monuments he erected throughout Egypt; among them, the Ramesseum at Thebes stands out.
According to many scholars, R. II is to be identified with the new king who began the oppression of the Israelite exiles in Egypt (Ex. 1:8–22) and whose daughter adopted Moses (ibid. 2:9–10); it is said that he had the Hebrews build the store-cities of R. (Per-Ramses) and Pithom (v. 1; ibid. 1:11–14). After his long reign (ibid. 2:23), Merneptah (v.) would be the pharaoh of the Exodus (v.), against whom Moses carried out the divine mission to free Israel (ibid. 3:10–15, 19).