Hophra

Hophra (known to Greek historians as Apries) was a Pharaoh of Egypt who reigned approximately 591–570 BC, during the final years of the kingdom of Judah and the early period of the Babylonian exile. He is mentioned by name only in Jeremiah 44:30, where God declares he will give Hophra into the hands of his enemies just as he gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar—a prophecy that was fulfilled when Hophra was overthrown and killed by Ahmose II.

During the siege of Jerusalem (588–586 BC), Hophra led an Egyptian army that temporarily relieved the Babylonian pressure on the city, causing Nebuchadnezzar to break off the siege briefly. Jeremiah warned that this Egyptian intervention would fail (Jeremiah 37:5–10), and indeed the Babylonians quickly returned and completed the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jewish refugees who fled to Egypt after Gedaliah's assassination, ignoring Jeremiah's counsel, settled partly under Hophra's protection—an act Jeremiah condemned as faithless reliance on Egypt rather than God. Hophra's downfall, as Jeremiah predicted, came through internal Egyptian conflict.