section_path: Divinity/Rabbinic literature
section_name: Rabbinic literature
paragraph_text: Rabbinic literature
  
  Even after the reign of the Egyptian kings and pharaohs, the notion of Pharaoh's self-notion as a divine being survived and is described in rabbinic literature. In these sources, the Pharaoh is described as hubristically asserting his own divinity and yet, compared to the one true God, is no more than an impotent human. Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Shirah 8:32 names Pharaoh among those who proclaimed themselves as gods, alongside Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar. Genesis Rabbah 89:3 invokes Pharaoh describing himself as the god over the Nile river. In Exodus Rabbah 10:2, Pharaoh boasts that he is the creator and owner of the Nile. God is then said to have responded to this statement by challenging the Pharaoh over who owns the Nile, as God proceeds to create a disaster by bringing forth frogs from it that consume Egypt's agriculture. In other midrashic texts, Pharaoh asserts himself as the creator of the universe and even of himself. In the Tanhuma, in commentary on Ezekiel 29:9, Pharaoh is said to have proclaimed himself as lord of the universe. Pharaoh is represented as a heretical figure who presents himself as divine, and these texts then claim that his claims were exposed when he had to go to the Nile to relieve himself.