The Battle of Kadesh

The event

Egypt's New Kingdom pharaohs and the Hittite Empire had circled each other warily for generations, both determined to control the wealthy city-states of Canaan and Syria lying between them. That rivalry came to a head around 1274 BC at Kadesh, on the Orontes River in Syria, where Ramesses II led a massive Egyptian army into a Hittite ambush organized by King Muwatalli II — one of the largest chariot battles ever fought in the ancient world, involving thousands of chariots on each side.

Both sides claimed victory (Ramesses commissioned enormous temple reliefs across Egypt celebrating his personal heroism in the battle), but the truth was closer to a costly stalemate. Neither empire could dislodge the other from the region, and roughly fifteen years later the two kingdoms signed the Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty — the oldest surviving peace treaty in world history, preserved in both Egyptian hieroglyphic and Hittite cuneiform copies.

This clash of empires forms the geopolitical backdrop against which Israel's own story in Canaan would soon unfold. Whether one follows the early-date or late-date Exodus chronology, Israel's arrival in and conquest of Canaan took place in the shadow of exactly this kind of great-power rivalry — a land contested by Egypt and the Hittites even as the LORD was giving it, by covenant promise, to Abraham's descendants (Genesis 15:18-21).

Scripture references

• Genesis 15:18-21