Genesis 12:15

Pharaoh’s house. The word “Pharaoh,” and Egyptian term literally meaning “great house,” was not originally a royal title but a term denoting the palace. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, under whose kings Moses wrote the book of Genesis, it became a term of respect designating the king. Similarly, the Sultan was called the Sublime Porte. Also, the President of the United States is sometimes referred to impersonally and indirectly as “the White House.” In later times the proper name of the king was added to his title, the earliest example of this use in the Bible occurring in the 10th century B.C. (see 2 Kings 23:29, “Pharaoh-nechoh”).