Exodus 7 commentary

EXODUS 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made
you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron
will be your prophet.
BAR ES, "With this chapter begins the series of miracles performed in Egypt. They
are progressive. The first miracle is performed to accredit the mission of the brothers; it
is simply credential, and unaccompanied by any infliction. Then come signs which show
that the powers of nature are subject to the will of Yahweh, each plague being attended
with grave consequences to the Egyptians, yet not inflicting severe loss or suffering; then
in rapid succession come ruinous and devastating plagues, murrain, boils, hail and
lightning, locusts, darkness, and lastly, the death of the firstborn. Each of the inflictions
has a demonstrable connection with Egyptian customs and phenomena; each is directly
aimed at some Egyptian superstition; all are marvelous, not, for the most part, as
reversing, but as developing forces inherent in nature, and directing them to a special
end. The effects correspond with these characteristics; the first miracles are neglected;
the following plagues first alarm, and then for a season, subdue, the king, who does not
give way until his firstborn is struck. Even that blow leaves him capable of a last effort,
which completes his ruin, and the deliverance of the Israelites.
I have made thee a god - Or “appointed thee.” See the margin reference. Moses will
stand in this special relation to Pharaoh, that God will address him by a prophet, i. e. by
one appointed to speak in His name. The passage is an important one as illustrating the
primary and essential characteristic of a prophet, he is the declarer of God’s will and
purpose.
CLARKE, "I have made thee a god - At thy word every plague shall come, and at
thy command each shall be removed. Thus Moses must have appeared as a god to
Pharaoh.
Shall be thy prophet - Shall receive the word from thy mouth, and communicate it
to the Egyptian king, Exo_7:2.
GILL, "And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to his objection, taken from his
own meanness, and the majesty of Pharaoh, and from his want of readiness and freedom
of expression:
see; take notice of, observe what I am about to say:

I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; not a god by nature, but made so; he was so by
commission and office, clothed with power and authority from God to act under him in
all things he should direct; not for ever, as angels are gods, but for a time; not in an
ordinary way, as magistrates are gods, but in an extraordinary manner; and not to any
other but to Pharaoh, being an ambassador of God to him, and as in his room and stead
to, rule over him, though so great a monarch; to command him what he should do, and
control him when he did wrong, and punish him for his disobedience, and inflict such
plagues upon him, and do such miracles before him, as no mere man of himself, and
none but God can do; and even exercise the power of life and death, as in the slaying of
the firstborn, that Pharaoh should stand in as much fear of him, as if he was a deity, and
apply to him to remove the plagues upon him, as if he was one:
and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet; to declare the will of God revealed to
him by Moses from the Lord; so that this seems to be more than to be the mouth and
spokesman of Moses and interpreter and explainer of his words, or to be acting the part
of an orator for him; for Moses in this affair being God's viceregent, and furnished with a
knowledge of the mind and will of God respecting it, as well as with power to work
miracles, and inflict plagues, was made a god to both Pharaoh and Aaron; see Exo_4:6
to Pharaoh in the sense before explained, and to Aaron, he being his prophet, to whom
he communicated the secrets of God, and his will and pleasure, in order to make the
same known to Pharaoh. Thus highly honoured was Moses to be a god to a sovereign
prince, and to have Aaron to be his prophet.
HE RY 1-5, "Here, I. God encourages Moses to go to Pharaoh, and at last silences all
his discouragements. 1. He clothes him with great power and authority (Exo_7:1): I have
made thee a god to Pharaoh; that is, my representative in this affair, as magistrates are
called gods, because they are God's viceregents. He was authorized to speak and act in
God's name and stead, and, under the divine direction, was endued with a divine power
to do that which is above the ordinary power of nature, and invested with a divine
authority to demand obedience from a sovereign prince and punish disobedience. Moses
was a god, but he was only a made god, not essentially one by nature; he was no god but
by commission. He was a god, but he was a god only to Pharaoh; the living and true God
is a God to all the world. It is an instance of God's condescension, and an evidence that
his thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace, that when he treats with men he treats by
men, whose terror shall not make us afraid. 2. He again nominates him an assistant, his
brother Aaron, who was not a man of uncircumcised lips, but a notable spokesman: “He
shall be thy prophet,” that is, “he shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from
God to the children of men. Thou shalt, as a god, inflict and remove the plagues, and
Aaron, as a prophet, shall denounce them, and threaten Pharaoh with them.” 3. He tells
him the worst of it, that Pharaoh would not hearken to him, and yet the work should be
done at last, Israel should be delivered and God therein would be glorified, Exo_7:4,
Exo_7:5. The Egyptians, who would not know the Lord, should be made to know him.
Note, It is, and ought to be, satisfaction enough to God's messengers that, whatever
contradiction and opposition may be given them, thus far they shall gain their point, that
God will be glorified in the success of their embassy, and all his chosen Israel will be
saved, and then they have no reason to say that they have laboured in vain. See here, (1.)
How God glorifies himself; he makes people know that he is Jehovah. Israel is made to
know it by the performance of his promises to them (Exo_6:3), and the Egyptians are
made to know it by the pouring out of his wrath upon them. Thus God's name is exalted
both in those that are saved and in those that perish. (2.) What method he takes to do

this: he humbles the proud, and exalts the poor, Luk_1:51, Luk_1:52. If God stretch out
his hand to sinners in vain, he will at last stretch out his hand upon them; and who can
bear the weight of it?
JAMISO , "Exo_7:1-25. Second interview with Pharaoh.
the Lord said unto Moses — He is here encouraged to wait again on the king - not,
however, as formerly, in the attitude of a humble suppliant, but now armed with
credentials as God’s ambassador, and to make his demand in a tone and manner which
no earthly monarch or court ever witnessed.
I have made thee a god — “made,” that is, set, appointed; “a god”; that is, he was to
act in this business as God’s representative, to act and speak in His name and to perform
things beyond the ordinary course of nature. The Orientals familiarly say of a man who
is eminently great or wise, “he is a god” among men.
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet — that is, “interpreter” or “spokesman.”
The one was to be the vicegerent of God, and the other must be considered the speaker
throughout all the ensuing scenes, even though his name is not expressly mentioned.
K&D 1-3, "Moses' last difficulty (Exo_6:12, repeated in Exo_6:30) was removed by
God with the words: “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet” (Exo_7:1). According to Exo_4:16, Moses was to be a god to
Aaron; and in harmony with that, Aaron is here called the prophet of Moses, as being the
person who would announce to Pharaoh the revelations of Moses. At the same time
Moses was also made a god to Pharaoh; i.e., he was promised divine authority and power
over Pharaoh, so that henceforth there was no more necessity for him to be afraid of the
king of Egypt, but the latter, notwithstanding all resistance, would eventually bow before
him. Moses was a god to Aaron as the revealer of the divine will, and to Pharaoh as the
executor of that will. - In Exo_7:2-5 God repeats in a still more emphatic form His
assurance, that notwithstanding the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, He would bring His
people Israel out of Egypt. ‫ח‬ ַ ִ‫שׁ‬ְ‫ו‬ (Exo_7:2) does not mean ut dimittat or mittat (Vulg.
Ros.; “that he send,” Eng. ver.); but ‫ו‬ is vav consec. perf., “and so he will send.” On Exo_
7:3 cf. Exo_4:21.
CALVI , "1.And the Lord said unto Moses. Moses again repeats, that consolation
was afforded him in his anxiety, and a remedy given for his want of faith; since he
was both armed himself with divine authority, and Aaron was appointed as his
companion and assistant. For that he was “made a god to Pharaoh,” means that he
was furnished with supreme authority and power, whereby he should cast down the
tyrant’s pride. (77) or did God take away anything from Himself in order to
transfer it to Moses; since He so communicates to His servants what is peculiar to
Himself as to remain Himself in His completeness. ay, whenever He seems to
resign a part of His glory to His ministers, He only teaches that the virtue and
efficacy of His Spirit will be joined with their labors, that they may not be fruitless.
Moses, therefore, was a god to Pharaoh; because in him God exerted His power, that
he should be superior to the greatness of the king. It is a common figure of the
Hebrews, to give the title of God to all things excellent, since He alone reigns over
heaven and earth, and exalts or casts down angels, as well as men, according to His
will. By this consolation, as I have said, the weakness of Moses was supported, so

that, relying on God’s authority, he might fearlessly despise the fierceness of the
king. A reinforcement is also given him in the person of his brother, lest his
stammering should be any hinderance to him. It has been already remarked, that it
was brought about by the ingratitude of Moses, that half the honor should be
transferred to his brother; although God, in giving him as his companion, so far
lessened his dignity as to put the younger before the first-born. The name of
“Prophet” is here used for an interpreter; because the prophetical office proceeds
from God alone. But, because God delivered through one to the other what He
wished to be said or done, Aaron is made subject to Moses, just as if he had been
God; since it is fit that they should be listened to without contradiction who are the
representatives of God. And this is made clearer in the second verse, where God
restricts the power given to Moses, and circumscribes it within its proper bounds;
for, when He directs him to speak whatever He commands, He ranks him as His
minister, and confines him under authority, without departing from His own rights.
BE SO , ". A god to Pharaoh — That is, my representative in this affair, as
magistrates are called gods, because they are God’s vicegerents. He was authorized
to speak and act in God’s name, and endued with a divine power, to do that which is
above the ordinary course of nature. And Aaron shall be thy prophet — That is, he
shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from God to the children of men.
Thou shalt as a god inflict and remove the plagues, and Aaron as a prophet shall
denounce them.
COFFMA , "Verse 1-2
THE DELIVERA CE OF ISRAEL (Exodus 7-14)
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee as God to Pharaoh; and
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee;
and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel
go out of his land."
"I have made thee as God to Pharaoh ..." This endowed Moses with full authority to
address Pharaoh as an equal, not as a subordinate. The contrast between the first
confrontation and this one is dramatic. In the first one (Exodus 5), Moses explained
the reason for their request, and limited it to "a three days journey into the
wilderness," the same being a legal and reasonable request. Pharaoh insulted Moses
and Aaron, accused them of "lying words" (Exodus 5:9), and ordered them back to
work, but, in this confrontation, and subsequently, Moses appeared before the cruel
monarch as a plenary representative of God Himself, speaking through a God-
ordained assistant and prophet, Aaron. Jamieson's comment on this is:
"(This meeting was not), as formerly, in the attitude of a humble suppliant, but now
armed with credentials as God's ambassador, and to make his demand in a tone and
manner which no earthly monarch or court had ever witnessed!"[1]
Thus, Moses here had the answer to the weakness regarding his speech which he
had brought up the second time in Exodus 6:12.

"Aaron shall be thy prophet ..." The use of the word "prophet" here is significant in
that it defines a prophet "as one who spoke not his own thoughts, but what he
received of God."[2] "The prophet was the middleman between God and the people,
God's mouthpiece, unlike the `Seer' whose name stressed how the message
came."[3] The significance of the word "prophet" is that it identifies God, not the
prophet, as the author of the message.
"Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh ..." Throughout the whole series of
the Ten Wonders about to be related, Aaron spoke and acted for Moses, his actions
and words being actually those of Moses, facts clearly indicated by this verse. How
ridiculous, therefore, are all the quibbles with which the critics busy themselves
about whether it was Aaron or Moses who stretched out the rod! Moses and Aaron
were a divinely-constituted unit in all these actions, and whatever either of them did
or said might properly be credited to the other or to both.
"That he let the children of Israel go ..." "The demand is for a full and final release
of the Hebrews from bondage."[4]
CO STABLE, "Verses 1-7
Moses was "as God" to Pharaoh in that he was the person who revealed God"s will
( Exodus 7:1). Pharaoh was to be the executor of that will. Aaron would be Moses"
prophet as he stood between Moses and Pharaoh and communicated Moses and
God"s will to the king. Exodus 7:1 helps us identify the essential meaning of the
Hebrew word nabhi (prophet; cf. Exodus 4:10-16; Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Isaiah
6:9; Jeremiah 1:7; Ezekiel 2:3-4; Amos 7:12-16). This word occurs almost300 times
in the Old Testament and "in its fullest significance meant "to speak fervently for
God"" [ ote: Leon J. Wood, The Prophets of Israel, p63. (]
"The pith of Hebrew prophecy is not prediction or social reform but the declaration
of divine will" [ ote: orman Gottwald, A Light to the ations, p277. See also
Edward J. Young, My Servants the Prophets, ch. III: "The Terminology of
Prophetism," for discussion of how the Old Testament used the Hebrew words for
prophets.]
God referred to the miracles Moses would do as signs (i.e, miracles with special
significance) and wonders (miracles producing wonder or awe in those who
witnessed them, Exodus 7:3). [ ote: See Ken L. Sarles, "An Appraisal of the Signs
and Wonders Movement," Bibliotheca Sacra145:577 (January-March1988):57-82.]
The text usually calls them "plagues," but clearly they were "signs," miracles that
signified God"s sovereignty.
The ultimate purpose of God"s actions was His own glory ( Exodus 7:5). The glory
of God was at stake. The Egyptians would acknowledge God"s faithfulness and
sovereign power in delivering the Israelites from their bondage and fulfilling their
holy calling. God"s intention was to bless the Egyptians through Israel ( Genesis
12:3), but Pharaoh would make that impossible by his stubborn refusal to honor
God. evertheless the Egyptians would acknowledge Yahweh"s sovereignty.

The writer included the ages of Moses and Aaron (80,83respectively) as part of
God"s formal certification of His messengers ( Exodus 7:7). [ ote: See G. Herbert
Livingston, "A Case Study of the Call of Moses," Asbury Theological Journal42:2
(Fall1987):89-113.]
"It is a common feature of biblical narratives for the age of their heroes to be stated
at the time when some momentous event befalls them ..." [ ote: Cassuto, pp90-91.]
"D. L. Moody wittily said that Moses spent forty years in Pharaoh"s court thinking
he was somebody; forty years in the desert learning he was nobody; and forty years
showing what God can do with somebody who found out he was nobody." [ ote:
Bernard Ramm, His Way Out, p54.]
ELLICOTT, "(1) See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh . . . —This is God’s
answer to the objection of Moses that his lips were uncircumcised (Exodus 6:12),
and probably followed it immediately. The force of it would seem to be: “Thou art
not called on to speak, but to act. In action thou wilt be to Pharaoh as a god—
powerful, wonder-working, irresistible; it is Aaron who will have to speak to him,
and he is eloquent” (Exodus 4:14).
Thy prophet.—Or spokesman—the declarer of thy mind, which is the primary sense
of “prophet.”
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god
to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Ver. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses.] In answer to his last exception, which yet he
had answered before. [Exodus 4:16] God bears with our infirmities.
A god to Pharaoh.] Armed with mine authority; a vice-god.
Shall be thy prophet,] i.e., Thy spokesman, and interpreter. Aben-Ezra saith that
Aaron, as he was Moses’s eldest brother, so he prophesied to the people before
Moses showed himself; and hence he is sometimes set before Moses.
WHEDO , "1. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh — o more was he to come to
Pharaoh as a suppliant, but now he was invested with divine authority. To Aaron,
Moses was a revealer of God’s will, (Exodus 4:16,) but to Pharaoh he was now to
appear clothed with God’s power. Hitherto he had been an advocate, a mediator,
and in that position had painfully felt the embarrassment of his slowness of speech;
but now his deeds were to speak, and, armed with Jehovah’s thunders, he was to
smite down the gods of Egypt. Thus, then, the Lord replies to Moses’s despairing
plea — “See, I have made thee a god!” Pharaoh had refused to glorify God by
obedience to Moses as a messenger of his mercy; now shall he glorify him by

submitting to Moses as a messenger of his wrath. The results of these threatened
judgments are now predicted.
EXPOSITOR'S DICTIO ARY, "Exodus 7:1-2
The literature of France has been to ours what Aaron was to Moses, the expositor of
great truths which would else have perished for want of a voice to utter them with
distinctness. The relation which existed between Mr. Bentham and M. Dumont is an
exact illustration of the intellectual relation in which the two countries stand to each
other. The great discoveries in physics, in metaphysics, in political science, are ours.
But scarcely any foreign nation except France has received them from us by direct
communication. Isolated by our situation, isolated by our manners, we found truth,
but we did not impart it. France has been the interpreter between England and
mankind.
—Macaulay on Walpole"s Letters.
PULPIT, "Once more God made allowance for the weakness and self-distrust of
Moses, severely tried as he had been by his former failure to persuade Pharaoh
(Exodus 5:1-5) and his recent rejection by the people of Israel (Exodus 6:9). He
made allowance, and raised his courage and his spirits by fresh promises, and by a
call upon him for immediate action. The process of deliverance, God assured him,
was just about to begin. Miracles would be wrought until Pharaoh's stubbornness
was overcome. He was himself to begin the series at once by casting his rod upon the
ground, that it might become a serpent (Exodus 7:9). From this point Moses'
diffidence wholly disappears. Once launched upon his Heaven-directed course,
assured of his miraculous powers, committed to a struggle with the powerful
Egyptian king, he persevered without blenching or wavering until success crowned
his efforts.
Exodus 7:1
I have made thee a god to Pharaoh. Moses was diffident of appearing a second time
before Pharaoh, who was so much his worldly superior. God reminds him that he is
in truth very much Pharaoh's superior. If Pharaoh has earthly, he has unearthly
power. He is to Pharaoh "as a god," with a right to command his obedience, and
with strength to enforce his commands. Aaron shall be thy prophet, i.e. "thy
spokesman"—the interpreter of thy will to others. Compare Exodus 4:16.
PULPIT, "Exodus 7:1, Exodus 7:2
God assigns to each man his intellectual grade.
Three different intellectual grades are here set before us—that of the thinker, that
of the expounder, and that of the mere recipient. Pharaoh, notwithstanding his
exalted earthly rank, occupies the lowest position. He is to hang on the words of
Aaron, who is to be to him as a prophet of the Most High. Aaron himself is to hang

on the words of Moses, and to be simply his mouthpiece. Moses is to stand to both
(compare Exodus 4:16) as God. And here note, that the positions are not self-
assumed—God assigns them. So there are leaders of thought in all ages, to whom
God has given their intellectual gifts, whom he has marked out for intellectual pre-
eminency, and whom he makes to stand to the rest of men as gods. Sometimes they
are their own prophets—they combine, that is, the power of utterance with the
power of thought. But very often they need an interpreter. Their lips are
uncircumcised. They lack eloquence; or they even lack the power of putting their
thoughts into words, and require a "prophet," to publish their views to the world.
The "prophet-interpreter" occupies a position very much below theirs, but still one
requiring important and peculiar gifts, such as God alone can give. He must have
the intelligence to catch the true bearing, connection, and force of the ideas
presented to him, often in rude and uncouth language, like statues rough-hewn. He
must be able to work up the rough material into presentable form. He must have a
gift of language, if not a gift of speech. The great mass of men occupy a lower rank
than either of these; they can neither originate, nor skilfully interpret; it remains
that they be content to receive. God has given to them their humble position, as he
has given to the others their loftier ones. They should cultivate their receptivity.
They should be satisfied to listen and learn. They should remember that if, on the
one hand, οὗτος µὲν πανάριστος ὂς αὐτὸς πάντα νοήσῃ—on the other, ἐσθλὸς δ αυ}
ka)kei=noj o$j eu) ei)po&nti pi&qhtai
BI 1-2, "I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.
The moral position in which some men stand to others
God made Moses to be a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron to be a prophet. There are many
good and noble men in the world to-day, who are gods, the instructors and rulers, of
their fellow-creatures.
I. This exalted moral position is the result of divine allotment. “And the Lord said unto
Moses, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.”
II. This exalted moral position involves arduous work and terrible responsibility.
1. The true gods of society have something more to do than to amuse it. The bearing
of their efforts has reference to souls, to man’s life in its relation to the Infinite. A
man whose highest aim is to excite the merriment of society, is too far removed from
divinity to be mistaken for a god.
2. The true gods of society find their employment in communicating to men the
messages of God. They come to teach us; to awaken us; to enable us to fulfil the will
of God. Hence their work is arduous and responsible.
III. This exalted moral position is most efficiently employed in seeking the freedom of
men. But for the slavery of Israel Moses would not have been a god unto Pharaoh. The
position is the outcome of a condition of things it ought to remove. It is not for self-
aggrandizement. It is to give men the freedom of a Divine salvation. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)

2 You are to say everything I command you, and
your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the
Israelites go out of his country.
GILL, "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee,.... That is, to Aaron his
prophet, whatever the Lord made known to him in a private manner as his will to be
done:
and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh; whatsoever should be told him
by Moses, as from the Lord:
that he send the children of Israel out of his land; this was the principal thing to
be insisted upon; and all that was said or done to him was to bring about this end, the
dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt.
PULPIT, "Thou shalt speak. The Septuagint and the Vulgate have, "Thou shalt
speak to him," which undoubtedly gives the true sense. Moses was to speak to
Aaron, Aaron to Pharaoh. (See Exodus 4:15, Exodus 4:16.)
3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I
multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,
BAR ES, "Wonders - A word used only of portents performed to prove a divine
interposition; they were the credentials of God’s messengers.

CLARKE, "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart - I will permit his stubbornness and
obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my
wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-
existent God. See Clarke’s note on Exo_4:21.
GILL, "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart,.... See Gill on Exo_4:21.
and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt; work one miracle
and wonderful sign after another, until they are all wrought intended to be wrought; and
which he had given Moses power to do, and until the end should be answered and
obtained, the letting go of the children of Israel.
JAMISO , "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart — This would be the result. But the
divine message would be the occasion, not the cause of the king’s impenitent obduracy.
CALVI , "3.And I will harden. As the expression is somewhat harsh, many
commentators, as I have before said, take pains to soften it. Hence it is that some
take the words in connection, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart by multiplying my
signs;” as if God were pointing out the external cause of his obstinacy. But Moses
has already declared, and will hereafter repeat it, that the king’s mind was
hardened by God in other ways besides His working miracles. As to the meaning of
the words, I have no doubt that, by the first clause, God armed the heart of His
servant with firmness, to resist boldly the perversity of the tyrant; and then reminds
him that he has the remedy in his hand. Thus, then, I think this passage must be
translated, “I indeed will harden Pharaoh’s heart, but I will multiply my signs;” as
though He had said, his hardness will be no obstacle to you, for the miracles will be
sufficient to overcome it. In the same sense, He adds immediately afterwards,
“Although Pharaoh should not hear you, still I will lay on my hand;” for thus, in my
opinion, the conjunctions should be resolved adversatively I do not altogether reject
the interpretation of others; “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply my
signs;” and, “He (78) will not hearken unto you, that I may lay on my hand.” And,
in fact, God willed that Pharaoh should pertinaciously resist Moses, in order that
the deliverance of the people might be more conspicuous. There is, however, no need
of discussing at length the manner in which God hardens reprobates, as often as this
expression occurs. Let us hold fast to what I have already observed, that they are
but poor speculators who refer it to a mere bare permission; because if God, by
blinding their minds, or hardening their hearts, inflicts deserved punishment upon
the reprobate, He not only permits them to do what they themselves please, but
actually executes a judgment which He knows to be just. Whence also it follows, that
He not only withdraws the grace of His Spirit, but delivers to Satan those whom he
knows to be deserving of blindness of mind and obstinacy of heart. Meanwhile, I
admit that the blame of either evil rests with the men themselves, who willfully blind
themselves, and with a willfulness which is like madness, are driven, or rather rush,
into sin. I have also briefly shewn what foul calumniators are they, who for the sake
of awakening ill-will against us, pretend that God is thus made to be the author of
sin; since it would be an act of too great absurdity to estimate His secret and

incomprehensible judgments by the little measure of our own apprehension. The
opponents of this doctrine foolishly and inconsiderately mix together two different
things, since the hardness of heart is the sin of man, but the hardening of the heart is
the judgment of God. He again propounds in this place His great judgments, in
order that the Israelites may expect with anxious and attentive minds His
magnificent and wonderful mode of operation.
COFFMA , "Verses 3-5
"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and wonders in the land
of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, and I will lay my hand upon
Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of
Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I
stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among
them."
"I will harden Pharaoh's heart ..." The mention of this here does not mean that God
would harden Pharaoh's heart at the beginning of these events, but that such
hardening executed upon him by God would be the final result. What we have in
these verses (Exodus 7:1-7) is a prophetic summary of the next seven chapters. See
under Exodus 4:21, above, for more on "Hardening." Canon George Harford has a
very perceptive comment on this subject, as follows:
"There are three forms of the word used in reference to hardening: (1) hard; (2)
self-hardened; and (3) God-hardened; raising difficulty, but a little reflection
lightens the difficulty. In all human conduct there is a mysterious combination of
man's choice and God's enabling. God uses events to produce opposite effects upon
different characters, as fire melts wax and hardens clay. Assertions of God's
sovereignty must not be isolated, but interpreted in harmony with His moral rule.
Thus read, the cumulative assaults upon Pharaoh's resolution call forth one of the
most dramatic exhibitions of the vacillations of man whose conscience has been
weakened, or silenced, by self-will.[5]
"The Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah ..." This means that they would learn
that, "Jehovah is the only God who is truly existent, all other gods being non-
entities."[6] Here is also revealed one of the principal purposes of the great wonders
executed upon Egypt, that being the total triumph of the true God over the gross
and shameful idolatry that prevailed. "The contest here is not so much with the
monarch himself as with the idols in whom he trusted."[7]
ELLICOTT, "(3) I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.—See the comment on Exodus 4:21.
My signs and my wonders.—“Signs” (‘othoth) were miracles done as credentials, to
prove a mission (Exodus 4:8-9; Exodus 4:30). “Wonders” (môphôth) were miracles
generally; niphle’oth, also translated” wonders” (Exodus 3:20), were miracles,
wrought in the way of punishment. These last are called also shôphëtiin,
“judgments.” (See Exodus 7:4.)
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE HARDE I G OF PHARAOH'S

HEART.
Exodus 7:3-13.
When Moses received his commission, at the bush, words were spoken which are
now repeated with more emphasis, and which have to be considered carefully. For
probably no statement of Scripture has excited fiercer criticism, more exultation of
enemies and perplexity of friends, than that the Lord said, "I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and he shall not let the people go," and that in consequence of this Divine act
Pharaoh sinned and suffered. Just because the words are startling, it is unjust to
quote them without careful examination of the context, both in the prediction and
the fulfilment. When all is weighed, compared, and harmonised, it will at last be
possible to draw a just conclusion. And although it may happen long before then,
that the objector will charge us with special pleading, yet he will be the special
pleader himself, if he seeks to hurry us, by prejudice or passion, to give a verdict
which is based upon less than all the evidence, patiently weighed.
Let us in the first place find out how soon this dreadful process began; when was it
that God fulfilled His threat, and hardened, in any sense whatever, the heart of
Pharaoh? Did He step in at the beginning, and render the unhappy king incapable
of weighing the remonstrances which He then performed the cruel mockery of
addressing to him? Were these as insincere and futile as if one bade the avalanche to
pause which his own act had started down the icy slopes? Was Pharaoh as little
responsible for his pursuit of Israel as his horses were--being, like them, the blind
agents of a superior force? We do not find it so. In the fifth chapter, when a demand
is made, without any sustaining miracle, simply appealing to the conscience of the
ruler, there is no mention of any such process, despite the insults with which
Pharaoh then assails both the messengers and Jehovah Himself, Whom he knows
not. In the seventh chapter there is clear evidence that the process is yet
unaccomplished; for, speaking of an act still future, it declares, "I will harden
Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt"
(Exodus 7:3). And this terrible act is not connected with the remonstrances and
warnings of God, but entirely with the increasing pressure of the miracles.
The exact period is marked when the hand of doom closed upon the tyrant. It is not
where the Authorised Version places it. When the magicians imitated the earlier
signs of Moses, "his heart was strong," but the original does not bear out the
assertion that at this time the Lord made it so by any judicial act of His (Exodus
7:13). That only comes with the sixth plague; and the course of events may be
traced, fairly well, by the help of the margin of the Revised Version.
After the plague of blood "Pharaoh's heart was strong" ("hardened"), and this is
distinctly ascribed to his own action, because "he set his heart even to this" (Exodus
7:22-23).
After the second plague, it was still he himself who "made his heart heavy" (Exodus
8:15).

After the third plague the magicians warned him that the very finger of some god
was upon him indeed: their rivalry, which hitherto might have been somewhat of a
palliation for his obstinacy, was now ended; but yet "his heart was strong" (Exodus
8:19).
Again, after the fourth plague he "made his heart heavy"; and it "was heavy" after
the fifth plague, (Exodus 8:32, Exodus 9:7).
Only thenceforward comes the judicial infatuation upon him who has resolutely
infatuated himself hitherto.
But when five warnings and penalties have spent their force in vain, when personal
agony is inflicted in the plague of boils, and the magicians in particular cannot stand
before him through their pain, would it have been proof of virtuous contrition if he
had yielded then? If he had needed evidence, it was given to him long before.
Submission now would have meant prudence, not penitence; and it was against
prudence, not penitence, that he was hardened. Because he had resisted evidence,
experience, and even the testimony of his own magicians, he was therefore stiffened
against the grudging and unworthy concessions which must otherwise have been
wrested from him, as a wild beast will turn and fly from fire. He was henceforth
himself to become an evidence and a portent; and so "The Lord made strong the
heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them" (Exodus 9:12). It was an awful
doom, but it is not open to the attacks so often made upon it. It only means that for
him the last five plagues were not disciplinary, but wholly penal.
ay, it stops short of asserting even this: they might still have appealed to his
reason; they were only not allowed to crush him by the agency of terror. ot once is
it asserted that God hardened his heart against any nobler impulse than alarm, and
desire to evade danger and death. We see clearly this meaning in the phrase, when it
is applied to his army entering the Red Sea: "I will make strong the hearts of the
Egyptians, and they shall go in" (Exodus 14:17). It needed no greater moral
turpitude to pursue the Hebrews over the sands than on the shore, but it certainly
required more hardihood. But the unpursued departure which the good-will of
Egypt refused, their common sense was not allowed to grant. Callousness was
followed by infatuation, as even the pagans felt that whom God wills to ruin He first
drives mad.
This explanation implies that to harden Pharaoh's heart was to inspire him, not
with wickedness, but with nerve.
And as far as the original language helps us at all, it decidedly supports this view.
Three different expressions have been unhappily rendered by the same English
word, to harden; but they may be discriminated throughout the narrative in
Exodus, by the margin of the Revised Version.
One word, which commonly appears without any marginal explanation, is the same

which is employed elsewhere about "the cause which is too hard for" minor judges
(Deuteronomy 1:17, cf. Deuteronomy 15:18, etc.). ow, this word is found (Exodus
7:13) in the second threat that "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," and in the account
which was to be given to posterity of how "Pharaoh hardened himself to let us go"
(Exodus 13:15). And it is said likewise of Sihon, king of Heshbon, that he "would
not let us pass by him, for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart
strong" (Deuteronomy 2:30). But since it does not occur anywhere in all the
narrative of what God actually did with Pharaoh, it is only just to interpret this
phrase in the prediction by what we read elsewhere of the manner of its fulfilment.
The second word is explained in the margin as meaning to make strong. Already
God had employed it when He said "I will make strong his heart" (Exodus 4:21),
and this is the term used of the first fulfilment of the menace, after the sixth plague
(Exodus 9:12). God is not said to interfere again after the seventh, which had few
special terrors for Pharaoh himself; but from henceforth the expression "to make
strong" alternates with the phrase "to make heavy." "Go in unto Pharaoh, for I
have made heavy his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these My
signs in the midst of them" (Exodus 10:1).
It may be safely assumed that these two expressions cover between them all that is
asserted of the judicial action of God in preventing a recoil of Pharaoh from his
calamities. ow, the strengthening of a heart, however punitive and disastrous when
a man's will is evil (just as the strengthening of his arm is disastrous then), has in
itself no immorality inherent. It is a thing as often good as bad,--as when Israel and
Joshua are exhorted to "Be strong and of a good courage" (Deuteronomy 31:6-7,
Deuteronomy 31:23), and when the angel laid his hand upon Daniel and said, "Be
strong, yea, be strong" (Daniel 10:19). In these passages the phrase is identical with
that which describes the process by which Pharaoh was prevented from cowering
under the tremendous blows he had provoked.
The other expression is to make heavy or dull. Thus "the eyes of Israel were heavy
with age" (Genesis 48:10), and as we speak of a weight of honour, equally with the
heaviness of a dull man, so we are twice commanded, "Make heavy (honour) thy
father and thy mother"; and the Lord declares, "I will make Myself heavy (get Me
honour) upon Pharaoh" (Deuteronomy 5:16, Exodus 20:12, Exodus 14:4, Exodus
14:17-18). In these latter references it will be observed that the making "strong" the
heart of Pharaoh, and the making "Myself heavy" are so connected as almost to
show a design of indicating how far is either expression from conveying the notion
of immorality, infused into a human heart by God. For one of the two phrases which
have been thus interpreted is still applied to Pharaoh; but the other (and the more
sinister, as we should think, when thus applied) is appropriated by God to Himself:
He makes Himself heavy.
It is also a curious and significant coincidence that the same word was used of the
burdens that were made heavy when first they claimed their freedom, which is now
used of the treatment of the heart of their oppressor (Exodus 5:9).

It appears, then, that the Lord is never said to debauch Pharaoh's heart, but only to
strengthen it against prudence and to make it dull; that the words used do not
express the infusion of evil passion, but the animation of a resolute courage, and the
overclouding of a natural discernment; and, above all, that every one of the three
words, to make hard, to make strong, and to make heavy, is employed to express
Pharaoh's own treatment of himself, before it is applied to any work of God, as
actually taking place already.
evertheless, there is a solemn warning for all time, in the assertion that what he at
first chose, the vengeance of God afterward chose for him. For indeed the same
process, working more slowly but on identical lines, is constantly seen in the
hardening effect of vicious habit. The gambler did not mean to stake all his fortune
upon one chance, when first he timidly laid down a paltry stake; nor has he changed
his mind since then as to the imprudence of such a hazard. The drunkard, the
murderer himself, is a man who at first did evil as far as he dared, and afterwards
dared to do evil which he would once have shuddered at.
Let no man assume that prudence will always save him from ruinous excess, if
respect for righteousness cannot withhold him from those first compliances which
sap the will, destroy the restraint of self-respect, wear away the horror of great
wickedness by familiarity with the same guilt in its lesser phases, and, above all,
forfeit the enlightenment and calmness of judgment which come from the Holy
Spirit of God, Who is the Spirit of wisdom and of counsel, and makes men to be of
quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.
Let no man think that the fear of damnation will bring him to the mercy-seat at last,
if the burden and gloom of being "condemned already" cannot now bend his will.
"Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a
reprobate mind" (Romans 1:28). "I gave them My statutes and showed them My
judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.... I gave them statutes that
were not good, and judgments wherein they should not live" (Ezekiel 20:11, Exodus
20:25).
This is the inevitable law, the law of a confused and darkened judgment, a heart
made heavy and ears shut, a conscience seared, an infatuated will kicking against
the pricks, and heaping to itself wrath against the day of wrath. Wilful sin is always
a challenge to God, and it is avenged by the obscuring of the lamp of God in the
soul. ow, a part of His guiding light is prudence; and it is possible that men who
will not be warned by the fear of injury to their conscience, such as they suppose
that Pharaoh suffered, may be sobered by the danger of such derangement of their
intellectual efficiency as really befel him.
In this sense men are, at last, impelled blindly to their fate (and this is a judicial act
of God, although it comes in the course of nature), but first they launch themselves
upon the slope which grows steeper at every downward step, until arrest is
impossible.

On the other hand, every act of obedience helps to release the will from its
entanglement, and to clear the judgment which has grown dull, anointing the eyes
with eye-salve that they may see. ot in vain is the assertion of the bondage of the
sinner and the glorious liberty of the children of God.
A second time, then, Moses presented himself before Pharaoh with his demands;
and, as he had been forewarned, he was now challenged to give a sign in proof of his
commission from a god.
And the demand was treated as reasonable; a sign was given, and a menacing one.
The peaceable rod of the shepherd, a fit symbol of the meek man who bore it,
became a serpent(10) before the king, as Moses was to become destructive to his
realm. But when the wise men of Egypt and the enchanters were called, they did
likewise; and although a marvel was added which incontestably declared the
superior power of the Deity Whom Aaron represented, yet their rivalry sufficed to
make strong the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not let the people go. The issue was
now knit: the result would be more signal than if the quarrel were decided at one
blow, and upon all the gods of Egypt the Lord would exercise vengeance.
What are we to think of the authentification of a religion by a sign? Beyond doubt,
Jesus recognised this aspect of His own miracles, when He said, "If I had not done
among them the works that none other man did, they had not had sin" (John 15:24).
And yet there is reason in the objection that no amount of marvel ought to deflect by
one hair's breadth our judgment of right and wrong, and the true appeal of a
religion must be to our moral sense.
o miracle can prove that immoral teaching is sacred. But it can prove that it is
supernatural. And this is precisely what Scripture always proclaims. In the ew
Testament, we are bidden to take heed, because a day will come, when false
prophets shall work great signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even the elect
(Mark 13:22). In the Old Testament, a prophet may seduce the people to worship
other gods, by giving them a sign or a wonder which shall come to pass, but they
must surely stone him: they must believe that his sign is only a temptation; and
above whatever power enabled him to work it, they must recognise Jehovah proving
them, and know that the supernatural has come to them in judgment, not in
revelation (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).
ow, this is the true function of the miraculous. At the most, it cannot coerce the
conscience, but only challenge it to consider and to judge.
A teacher of the purest morality may be only a human teacher still; nor is the
Christian bound to follow into the desert every clamorous innovator, or to seek in
the secret chamber every one who whispers a private doctrine to a few. We are
entitled to expect that one who is commissioned directly from above will bear special
credentials with him; but when these are exhibited, we must still judge whether the
document they attest is forged. And this may explain to us why the magicians were
allowed for awhile to perplex the judgment of Pharaoh whether by fraud, as we may

well suppose, or by infernal help. It was enough that Moses should set his claims
upon a level with those which Pharaoh reverenced: the king was then bound to
weigh their relative merits in other and wholly different scales.
PARKER, "The Hardening of Pharaoh"s Heart
Exodus 7:3
We have already remarked upon the hardening of Pharaoh"s heart; let us now look
at some of the broader aspects of that supposed mystery. We must never consent to
have God charged with injustice. Stand at what distance he may from our reason, he
must never separate himself from our conscience. If God could first harden a man"s
heart, and then punish the man because his heart was hard, he would act a part
which the sense of justice would instantly and indignantly condemn; therefore, he
could not act that part. Whenever there is on the one hand a verbal difficulty, and
on the other hand a moral difficulty, the verbal difficulty must give way. It is a rule
of interpretation we must fearlessly apply. Let me Revelation -state it. If ever there
should be a battle between language and the instinct or sense of justice, the language
must go down; the Judge of all the earth must be held to do right. The key of the
whole difficulty is in the very first chapter of the Book of Exodus; in the eighth verse
of that chapter we read: " ow there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew
not Joseph." That is the beginning of the mischief. That is the explanation of all the
hardening of heart What is the full translation or paraphrase of that verse? It is
this: ow there arose a new king, who knew not the history of his own country; a
Pharaoh who remembered not that Egypt had been saved by one of the very
Israelites who had become to him objects of fear; a king guilty either of ignorance or
of ingratitude; for if he knew the history of his own country and acted in this way he
was ungrateful, and therefore hardened his own heart; and if he did not know the
history of his own country, he was ignorant of the one thing which every king ought
to know, and therefore he was unfit to be king. The explanation of all that follows is
in this ignorant or ungrateful Pharaoh, not in the wisdom or grace of the providence
of God. Whether this particular Pharaoh came immediately after Joseph, or five
centuries after him is of no consequence, since we are dealing with a moral
progeny—a bad hereditary—and not with a merely physical descent. The point to
be kept steadily in view is that Pharaoh had hardened his own heart in the first
instance, had forgotten or ignored the history of his country, and was ruling his
whole course by obduracy and selfishness. That is the Pharaoh with whom God had
to deal. ot some young and pliable Pharaoh, who was willing to be either right or
wrong, as anybody might be pleased to lead him; an immature and inexperienced
Pharaoh, who was simply looking round for a policy, and might as easily have been
led upwards as led downwards—a very gentle, genial, beautiful soul; but a man who
had made up his mind to forget the saviour of his country, and to bend every
consideration to the impulse of a narrow and cruel policy. In this criticism Pharaoh
must be to us something more than an Egyptian term. We must know the man
before we can even partially understand the providence. What is the material with
which God has to deal? That is the vital inquiry. God may be reverently represented
as speaking thus:—This Prayer of Manasseh , having hardened his heart, has shown

clearly the specialty of his moral and mental constitution; he must be made,
therefore, to see what hardness of heart really means; for his own sake, I will treat
him as he has treated himself, and through him I will show the ages that to harden
the heart is the most terrible of all crimes, is indeed the beginning and pledge of the
unpardonable sin, and can only be punished by the destruction of the body and soul
in hell. There is no other way of dealing with the world. Men supply the conditions
with which Providence has to work.
The case now begins to lift itself out of the narrow limits of a historical puzzle and to
assume the grandeur of an illustration of Divine methods and purposes; in other
words, it is no longer an instance of the sovereignty of force, but an example of the
sovereignty of love, and though the example is unavoidably costly in its individual
suffering it is infinitely precious as an eternal doctrine. God is to us what we are to
God. He begins where we begin. One might imagine that the Lord treated Pharaoh
arbitrarily, that is to say, did just what he pleased with that particular man or class
of man. othing can be further from the truth. There is nothing arbitrary in the
eternal government. It is begun with justice, in the whole process justice, in the
whole issue justice. What other elements may come in will appear as the case is
evolved and consummated. The Lord hardened the hearts of the Israelites just as
certainly as he hardened the heart of Pharaon, and in the very same way and for the
very same reason. Do not imagine that God has some partiality for one man at the
expense of another. God deals with each man according to each man"s peculiarity of
constitution and purpose. See how the Lord treated the Israelites: "So I gave them
up unto their own hearts" lust: and they walked in their own counsels." The
marginal reading is still more vivid: "I gave them up unto the hardness of their
hearts." That is to say, the Divine Teacher must at certain points say, in effect: You
have made your determination, you must work it out; no reasoning, even on my
part, would dissuade you; you must for yourselves, in bitterness and agony of
experience, see what this condition of mind really means—"So I gave them up unto
their own hearts" lust: and they walked in their own counsels"—not as an act of
sovereignty, arbitrariness, and determination that could not be set aside because of
the Divinity of its origin; but I, the Living God, was for their sakes necessitated to
let them see what a certain course of conduct must logically and morally end in. The
Apostle puts the same truth in very striking language: "They received not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie." "My Spirit shall not always strive with
Prayer of Manasseh ,"—I will, at a certain point, stand back and let you see what
you are really at; doctrine would be lost upon you; exposition, appeal, would be
abortive; I am necessitated, therefore, though the Living God and Father, to let you
have your own way, that you may really see that it was an angel that was stopping
you, it was mercy that would have prevented your downward rush.
This is the secret of all Biblical providence, and rule, and education. From the very
beginning, the first man started up with a disobedient heart. For some reason or
other, he said he would pursue a policy of disobedience. The Lord allowed him to do
Song of Solomon , and the result was death. He was told that death would be the
result, but the telling had no effect upon him: he said, "I will try." If our narrow

suggestion of reasoning, and persuading, and pleading, were correct and profound
in its moral conception, and absolute in its philosophical Wisdom of Solomon ,
Adam would not have incurred God"s prediction, but instantly have fallen back
from the tree forbidden, and on no account would have touched it; but philosophy is
lost, appeal is a voice in the air that brings back no great heart-cry of allegiance and
consent. Every man must touch hell for himself. Another man started life upon a
different policy. He said he would rule by violence; nothing should stand in his way;
resistance on the part of others, or aggravation on the side of others, would simply
elicit from him an answer of violence and destruction. Said Hebrews , in effect, "I
will not reason, I will smite; I will not pray, I will destroy." The Lord said in effect:
"It must be so; you must see the result of this violence; that disposition never can be
got out of you but by exhaustion; argument would be lost on a fiery spirit like yours;
it would be in vain to interpose gentle persuasion or entreating prayer between a
nature like yours and the end which it contemplates. Take your own course, and the
end of violence is to be Cain for ever, to be branded externally, to be a lesson to the
ages that violence only slays itself, and is a wickedness, a crime, in a universe of
order." Another man arose, who said he abhorred violence. Issues which the soul
wished were accomplished must be secured by other and wiser and deeper means.
Said Hebrews , "I will try deception, I will tell falsehoods, I will answer inquiries
lyingly; there shall be no noise, no tumult, no sign of violence or passion; but I will
answer with mental reservations, I will play a false part, and thus pass smoothly
through life." The man was of a false heart. He did not tell lies: he was a lie. The
Lord had but one alternative. Though he be omnipotent in strength, he is limited
when he deals with the creatures which he has made in his own image. So said
Hebrews , in effect, "If it must be Song of Solomon , it must be so; your policy you
have adopted—attempt it." The man attempted it, and was laid in the dust a dead,
blighted victim of his own sin. The universe will not have the liar in it. It may find
room for his body to rot in, but it will not suffer him to live. All through and
through history, therefore, the same thing is again and again demonstrated. We
cannot account for personal constitution, for singularities of mind; in this profound
problem there are metaphysics not to be penetrated by human reason, and the
expositor, how careful and anxious soever he may be, can only begin where the facts
themselves begin. What lies beyond his ken also lies beyond his criticism. The
solemn and awful fact Isaiah , that every man has a constitution of his own, a
peculiarity and specialty which makes him an individual and separates him from all
other men, giving him an accent and a signature incommunicably his own, and that
God deals with every man according to the conditions which the man himself
supplies.
But a narrow criticism would tempt us to say that mercy will prevail where
hardening will utterly want success; gentleness, tears, compassion—they will
succeed. If God had, to speak figuratively, fallen upon the neck of Pharaoh, and
wept over him, and persuaded him with gentle words, Pharaoh would have been a
different man. That criticism is profanity; that criticism is historically false: hear
the Apostolic argument: "For he [God] saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth

mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be
declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,"—perfectly easy words, if taken from the
right point of view, and constructed in harmony with the broad method of Divine
providence, even as that method is known amongst ourselves. The Lord has in this
way, which is the only way, shown that the exercise of mercy is as useless as the
process of hardening. We have foolishly imagined that mercy has succeeded, and
hardening has failed: whereas all history shows us, and all experience confirms the
verdict of history, that mercy is utterly useless. We ourselves are living examples
that all God"s tears cannot soften the obduracy of our heart. This interpretation
clears away all difficulty from this Pauline passage, enabling us to read it in this
way: God has, in the exercise of his sovereign Wisdom of Solomon , tried different
methods with different minds. In some instances he has demonstrated the inevitable
issue of hardness of heart; in other instances he has shown the utter uselessness of
mere mercy; he has had mercy on whom he would have mercy, and whom he would
he has hardened, or on them tried a hardening process; in other words, he has let
both of them work out the bent of their own mind, fulfil their own line of
constitution, and see what it ends in, and the consequence is this: letting men have
their own way has failed, pitying their weaknesses has failed, terror has
accomplished nothing, and mere mercy has only wrung its own tender heart; the
rod and the tears have both failed. Let us wait before we come to the final
conclusion. We are now in the midst of a process and must not force the issue by
impatience.
So then it is unrighteous to blame God for showing men what hardness of heart
really means, as if by adopting a contrary course he could have saved them; for he
has again and again, in his providence, shown that his goodness has been no more
effectual than his sovereignty. This is the other side of the great problem. We pitied
Pharaoh, saying, "If the Lord would but try the effect of mercy upon him, Pharaoh
would be pliant." The Lord says: " o; I know Pharaoh better than you do; but to
show you what mercy will do or will not do, I will try it upon other men." And we
have stood by, and seen God cry rivers of tears, we have seen him thrill with
compassion; we have seen him make himself pliable in the hands of his own
children, as if they might do with him what they pleased; and they have in reply to
his mercy smitten him in the face.
The seventy-eighth Psalm is an elaborate historical argument establishing this very
point, and is the more striking that it deals with the very people whom Pharaoh
refused to liberate. The whole case is thus focalised for us; we see the double action
at one view. If you want to see what hardening can do, look at Pharaoh; if you want
to see what mercy can do, look at Israel; in both instances you see utter failure. God
had compassion on whom he would have compassion, and on whom he would he
tried the giving up of men to the hardness of their own hearts, and in both cases the
issue was disappointment and grief on the part of God. So our little narrow theory
that mercy would have succeeded has been contradicted by the unanimous verdict
of the ages. Can language be tenderer than that of the Psalmist? "Marvellous things

did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He
divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand
as an heap. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a
light of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the
great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run
down like rivers." What is the upshot? They all prayed, they all loved God, they all
responded to the magic of mercy? "And they sinned yet more against him by
provoking the Most High in the wilderness." "But Hebrews , being full of
compassion"—this is the very theory you wanted to have tried—"forgave their
iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and
did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind
that passeth away, and cometh not again." How did they answer him? By love? by
allegiance? by covenants of loyalty? Read the history: "How oft did they provoke
him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and
tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand:
nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy." There mercy stands back,
and says, "I have failed." Seeing that both severity and mercy have failed, what was
to be done with the race? Says God: "I have had compassion on these; I have
hardened the hearts of these—or, in other words, have allowed them to see what the
hardening of their own hearts really means; I have thus created a great human
history, and the result is failure, failure. The law has failed, sentiment has failed, the
sword I put back as a failure, my tears I dry as a failure—what is to be done?" ow
comes the sublimity of the evangelical philosophy, the glory of the gospel as it is
known in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness and mercy must meet
together, justice and pity must hold their interview; God must be just, and yet must
himself find means by which he can be the Justifier of the ungodly. This
reconciliation has been effected. We, as evangelical thinkers, believe in the Cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and if that fail there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
SIMEO , "GOD HARDE I G PHARAOH’S HEART
Exodus 7:3. I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
AS there are in the works of creation many things which exceed the narrow limits of
human understanding, so are there many things incomprehensible to us both in the
works of providence and of grace. It is not however necessary that, because we
cannot fully comprehend these mysteries, we should never fix our attention at all
upon them: as far as they are revealed, the consideration of them is highly proper:
only, where we are so liable to err, our steps must be proportionably cautious, and
our inquiries be conducted with the greater humility. In particular, the deepest
reverence becomes us, while we contemplate the subject before us. We ought not, on
the one hand, to indulge a proud and captious spirit that shall banish the subject
altogether, nor, on the other hand, to make our assertions upon it with a bold,
unhallowed confidence. Desirous of avoiding either extreme, we shall endeavour to
explain and vindicate the conduct of God, as it is stated in the text.
I. To explain it—

We are not to imagine that God infused any evil principle into the heart of Pharaoh:
this God never did, nor ever will do, to any of his creatures [ ote: James 1:13.].
What he did, may be comprehended in three particulars—
1. He left Pharaoh to the influence of his own corruptions—
[Pharaoh was a proud and haughty monarch: and, while he exercised a most
arbitrary and oppressive power over his subjects, he disdained to respect the
authority of Jehovah, who was “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
God, if he had seen fit, might have prevented him from manifesting these
corruptions. He might have struck him dead upon the spot; or intimidated him by a
dream or vision; or have converted him, as he did the persecuting Saul, in the midst
of all his malignant projects: but he left him to himself, precisely as he does other
men when they commit iniquity; and suffered him to manifest all the evil
dispositions of his heart.
This is no other conduct than what God has pursued from the beginning. When men
have obstinately “rebelled against the light,” he has “given them up to follow their
own hearts’ lusts [ ote: Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28; Psalms 81:11-
12; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.]:” and we have reason to expect that he will deal thus
with us, if we continue to resist his will [ ote: Genesis 6:3; Leviticus 26:27-28;
Proverbs 1:24-30.].]
2. He suffered such events to concur as should give scope for the exercise of
those corruptions—
[He raised Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt, and thereby invested him with power to
oppress [ ote: Romans 9:17.]. By multiplying the Jews, he made their services of
great importance to the Egyptian empire. The labours of six hundred thousand
slaves could not easily be dispensed with; and therefore the temptation to retain
them in bondage was exceeding great. Besides, the request made of going to serve
their God in the wilderness must appear to him frivolous and absurd; for, why
should they not be content to serve him in the land? Moreover, the success of his
magicians in imitating the miracles of Moses, would seem to justify the idea, that
Moses was no more than a magician, only perhaps of a more intelligent order than
those employed by him. The frequent and speedy removal of the judgments that
were inflicted on him, would yet further tend to harden him, by making him think
light of those judgments. Thus the unreasonableness of his opposition would be hid
from him; and he would persist in his rebellion without compunction or fear.]
3. He gave Satan permission to exert his influence over him—
[Satan is a powerful being; and, when the restraints which God has imposed upon
him are withdrawn, can do great things. He cannot indeed force any man to sin
against his will: but he can bring him into such circumstances, as shall have a strong

tendency to ensnare his soul. We know from the history of Job, how great things he
can effect for the distressing of a most eminent saint: much more therefore may we
suppose him to prevail over one, who is his blind and willing vassal [ ote: 2
Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:26.]. We do not indeed know, from any express
declarations, that Satan interfered in this work of hardening Pharaoh: but, when we
recollect how he instigated David to number the people; how he prevailed on Peter
to deny, and Judas to betray, his Lord; how he filled the hearts of Ananias and
Sapphira that they might lie unto God; and finally, how expressly we are told that
he works in all the children of disobedience;” we can have no doubt respecting his
agency in the heart of Pharaoh.
Thus, as far as respects a withholding of that grace which might have softened
Pharaoh’s heart, and a giving him an opportunity to shew his malignant
dispositions, and a permitting of Satan to exert his influence, God hardened
Pharaoh’s heart: but as being a perfectly free agent, Pharaoh hardened his own
heart: and this is repeatedly affirmed in the subsequent parts of this history.]
When once we have learned what was the true nature of God’s agency, and how far
it was concerned in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, we shall beat no loss,
II. To vindicate it—
We must never forget that “God’s ways and thoughts are infinitely above ours;”
and that, whether we approve of them or not, “he will never give account of them to
us:” yet, constituted as we are, we feel a satisfaction in being able to discern their
suitableness to the divine character. Of the dispensation then which we are
considering, we may say,
1. It was righteous, as it respected the individual himself—
[It was perfectly righteous that Pharaoh should be left to himself. What injury
would God have done, if he had acted towards the whole human race precisely as he
did towards the fallen angels? What reason can be assigned why man, who had
imitated their wickedness, should not be a partaker of their punishment? If then
none had any claim upon God for the exercise of his grace, how much less could
Pharaoh have a title to it, after having so proudly defied God, and so obstinately
withstood his most express commands? If there was any thing unjust in abandoning
Pharaoh to the corrupt affections of his heart, all other sinners in the universe have
reason to make the same complaint, that God is unrighteous in his dealings with
them. In that case, God could not, consistently with his own justice, permit sin at all:
he must impose an irresistible restraint on all, and cease to deal with us as persons
in a state of probation.
Again, it was righteous in God to suffer such a concurrence of circumstances as
should give scope for the exercise of his corruptions. God is no more bound to
destroy man’s free agency by his providence, than he is by his grace. Was it
unrighteous in him to let Cain have an opportunity of executing his murderous

project against his brother Abel? or has he been unjust, as often as he has permitted
others to accomplish their wicked purposes? Doubtless he has interposed, by his
providence, to prevent the execution of many evils that have been conceived in our
minds [ ote: Hosea 2:6.]: but he is not bound to do so for any one; nor could he do
it universally, without changing the nature of his government, and the whole course
of the world.
Moreover, it was righteous to give Satan liberty to exert his influence over Pharaoh.
Pharaoh chose to believe the agents of Satan rather than the servants of the Most
High God; and to obey their counsels rather than his. Why then should God
continue to restrain Satan, when Pharaoh desired nothing so much as to yield to his
temptations? When Ahab sent for all his lying prophets to counsel him and to foster
his delusions, God permitted “Satan to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all those
prophets,” that they might all concur in the same fatal advice [ ote: 1 Kings 22:21-
23.]. Was this unjust? Was it not agreeable to Ahab’s own wish; and was not the
contrary counsel of the Lord’s prophet rejected by him with disdain? Pharaoh
wished to be deceived; and God permitted it to be according to his own heart’s
desire.
On the whole then, if men are to be left to their own free agency, instead of being
dealt with as mere machines; and if God have ordered the general course of his
providence agreeably to this rule, resisting the proud while he gives grace to the
humble; then was he fully justified in suffering this impious monarch to harden his
already proud and obdurate heart [ ote: Compare Deuteronomy 2:30 and Joshua
11:20.].]
2. It was merciful, as it respected the universe at large—
[We form erroneous conceptions of the divine government, because we view it on too
contracted a scale. God, in his dealings with mankind, consults, not the benefit of an
individual merely, but the good of the whole. ow this conduct towards Pharaoh
was calculated exceedingly to promote the welfare of all succeeding generations. It
has given us lessons of instruction that are of the greatest value.
It has shewn us the extreme depravity of the human heart. Who would have
conceived that a man, warned as Pharaoh was by so many tremendous plagues,
should continue, to the last, to set himself against the God of heaven and earth? But
in him we see what men will do, when their pride, their passions, and their interests
have gained an ascendant over them: they will defy God to his face; and, if softened
for a moment by the severity of his judgments, they will soon, like metal from the
furnace, return to their wonted hardness.
It has shewn us our need of divine grace. Widely as men differ from each other in
their constitutional frame both of body and mind, they all agree in this, that “they
have a carnal mind, which is enmity against God; and which neither is, nor can be,
subject to his law [ ote: Romans 8:7.].” We may all see in Pharaoh a striking
portrait of ourselves: and if one be enabled to mortify the evils of his heart, whilst

others continue in bondage to their lusts, he must say, “By the grace of God I am
what I am.” If we have no more grace than Pharaoh in our hearts, we shall have no
more holiness in our lives.
It has shewn us the danger of fighting against God [ ote: Isaiah 45:9.]. “Fools make
a mock at sin,” and “puff at the threatened judgments” of God. But let any one see
in Pharaoh the danger of being given over to a reprobate mind: let any one see in
what our hardness of heart may issue: and he will tremble lest God should say
respecting him, “He is joined to idols; let him alone.”
It has shewn us the obligations we lie under to God for the long-suffering he has
already exercised towards us. We read the history of Pharaoh: happy is it for us,
that we have not been left, like him, to be a warning to others. o tongue can utter
the thanks that are due to him on this account. If we know any thing of our own
hearts, we shall be ready to think ourselves the greatest monuments of mercy that
ever were rescued from perdition.
ow these lessons are invaluable: and every one that reads the history of this
unhappy monarch, must see them written in it as with the pen of a diamond.]
Address—
[We are told to “remember Lot’s wife:” and it will be well also to remember
Pharaoh. Let none of us trifle with our convictions, or follow carnal policy in
preference to the commands of God — — — Let the messages of God be received
with reverence, and obeyed with cheerfulness — — — Let us be afraid of hardening
our own hearts, lest God should give us over to final obduracy [ ote: Job 9:4.]. If
God withdraw from us, Satan will quickly come [ ote: 1 Samuel 16:14.]: and if we
are left to Satan’s agency, better were it for us that we had never been born. — —
— Seek of God the influences of the Holy Ghost, who will “take away the heart of
stone, and give you an heart of flesh.”]
PULPIT, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart. See the comment on Exodus 4:21. And
multiply my signs and my wonders. The idea of a long series of miracles is here, for
the first time, distinctly introduced. Three signs had been given (Exodus 4:3-9); one
further miracle had been mentioned (Exodus 4:23). ow a multiplication of signs
and wonders is promised. Compare Exodus 3:20, and Exodus 6:6, which, however,
are not so explicit as the present passage.
PULPIT, "Exodus 7:3
Heart-hardening.
On this subject, see above, and on Exodus 4:21. The present seems an appropriate
place for a somewhat fuller treatment.
I. HARDE I G AS PROCEEDI G FROM GOD. "I will harden Pharaoh's heart."

This, assuredly, is more than simple permission. God hardens the heart—
1. Through the operation of the laws of our moral constitution, These laws, of which
God is the author, and through which he operates in the soul, ordain hardening as
the penalty of evil conduct, of resistance to truth, and of all misimprovement and
abuse of privilege.
2. Through his providence—as when God, in the execution of his judgments, places
a wicked man in situations which he knows can only have a hardening effect upon
him. He does this in righteousness. "God, having permitted evil to exist, must
thereafter of necessity permit it also to run its whole course in the way of showing
itself to be what it really is, as that which aims at the defeat of the Divine purpose,
and the consequent dissolution of the universe." This involves hardening.
3. Through a direct judgment in the soul of the individual, God smiting him with a
spirit of blindness and infatuation in punishment of obstinate resistance to the truth.
This is the most difficult of all aspects of hardening, but it only cuts the knot, does
not untie it, to put superficial meanings upon the scriptures which allege the reality
of the judgment (e.g. Deuteronomy 28:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:11). It is to be viewed as
connected with what may be called the internal providence of God in the workings
of the human mind; his government of the mind in the wide and obscure regions of
its involuntary activities. The direction taken by these activities, seeing that they do
not spring from man's own will, must be as truly under the regulation of
Providence, and be determined in quite as special a manner, as are the outward
circumstances of our lot, or those so-called fortuities concerning which we are
assured: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your Father." (Matthew 10:29). It is a significant fact that, as
sin advances, the sinner becomes less and less a free agent, falls increasingly under
the dominion of necessity. The involuntary activities of the soul gain ground upon
the voluntary. The hardening may be conceived of, partly as the result of a
withdrawal of light and restraining grace; partly as a giving of the sou] up to the
delusions of the adversary, "the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), whose will gradually occupies the region in the
moral life vacated by the human will, and asserts there a correspondingly greater
power of control; and partly as the result of a direct Divine ordering of the course of
thought, feeling, and imagination. Hengstenberg acutely remarks: "It appears to
proceed from design, that the hardening at the beginning of the plagues is
attributed, in a preponderating degree, to Pharaoh, and towards the end to God.
The higher the plagues rise, so much the more does Pharaoh's hardening assume a
supernatural character, so much the more obvious is it to refer it to its supernatural
causality."
II. HARDE I G I ITSELF CO SIDERED. The heart is the centre of
personality, the source of moral life, the seat of the will, the conscience, and the
affections (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:18). The hardening of the heart may be
viewed under two aspects:

1. More generally as the result of growth in sin, with consequent loss of moral and
religious susceptibility; and
2. As hardening against God, the author of its moral life. We have but to put these
two things together—the heart, the seat of moral life, hardening itself against the
Author of its moral life—to see that such hardening is of necessity fatal, an act of
moral suicide. It may elucidate the subject to remark that in every process of
hardening there is something which the heart parts with, something which it resists,
and something which it becomes. There is, in other words
(1) That which the heart hardens itself in, viz. some evil quality, say injustice,
cruelty, lust, hate, secret enmity to God, which quality gradually becomes a fixed
element in character;
1. All evil hardens, and all hardening in moral evil is in principle hardening against
God. The hardening may begin at the circumference of the moral nature, and
involve the centre, or it may begin at the centre, and work out to the circumference.
Men may be enemies to God in their mind by wicked works (Colossians 1:21), they
may have "the understanding darkened," and be "alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness (marg. hardness) of
their hearts," and being "past feeling" may give "themselves over unto
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Ephesians 4:17-19), and
yet be strangers to God's revealed truth. All sin, all resistance to light, all
disobedience to conscience, has this hardening effect (cf. Romans 1:19-32). But it is a
will which has broken from God which is thus in various ways hardening itself, and
enmity to God is latent in the process. The moment the truth of God is brought to
bear on such a nature, this latent enmity is made manifest, and, as in the case of
Pharaoh, further hardening is the result. Conversely,
2. Hardening against God is hardening in moral evil. The hardening may begin at
the centre, in resistance to God's known will, and to the strivings of his Spirit, and
thence spread through the whole moral nature. This is the deepest and fundamental
hardening, and of itself gives a character to the being. A heart hardened in its
interior against its Maker would be entitled to be called hard, no matter what
superficial qualities of a pleasant kind remained to it, and no matter how correct the
moral conduct.
3. Hardening results in a very special degree from resistance to the Word of God, to
Divine revelation. This is the type of hardening which is chiefly spoken of in
Scripture, and which gives rise to what it specially calls "the hard and impenitent
heart" (Romans 2:5). All revelation of God, especially his revelation in Christ, has a
testing power, and if resisted produces a hardness which speedily becomes
obduracy. God may be resisted in his Word, his Spirit, his servants, his
chastisements, and in the testimony to his existence and authority written on the
soul itself. But the highest form of resistance—the worst and deadliest—is resistance
to the Spirit drawing to Christ.

III. THE HARDE I G OF PHARAOH COMPARED WITH HARDE I G
U DER THE GOSPEL. Pharaoh stands out in Scripture as the typical instance of
hardening of the heart.
1. He and Jehovah stood in direct opposition to each other.
2. God's will was made known to him in a way he could not mistake. He pretended
at first to doubt, but doubt soon became impossible.
3. He resisted to the last. And the longer he resisted, his heart grew harder.
4. His resistance was his ruin.
In considering the case of this monarch, however, and comparing it with our own,
we have to remember—
1. That Pharaoh was a heathen king. He was naturally prejudiced in favour of the
gods of Egypt. He had at first no knowledge of Jehovah. But we have had from
infancy the advantage of a knowledge of the true God, of his existence, his
attributes, and his demands.
2. Pharaoh had a heathen upbringing. His moral training was vastly inferior to that
which most have enjoyed who hear the Gospel.
3. The influences he resisted were outward influences—strokes of judgment. The
hardening produced by resistance to the inward influences of Christianity, strivings
of the Spirit, etc; is necessarily of a deeper kind.
4. What was demanded of Pharaoh was the liberation of a nation of slaves—in our
case it is required that we part with sins, and yield up heart and will to the Creator
and Redeemer. Outward compliance would have sufficed in his case; in ours, the
Compliance must be inward and spiritual. Here, again, inasmuch as the demand
goes deeper, the hardening produced by resistance is of necessity deeper also. There
is now possible to man the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
(Matthew 12:32; Hebrews 6:4 6).
5. The motives in the two eases are not comparable. In the one case, God revealed in
judgments; in the other, in transcendent love and mercy.
Conclusion:—"To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews
3:7, Hebrews 3:8, Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 3:15, Hebrews 4:7). Beware, in
Connection with this hardening, of "the deceitfulness of sin," The heart has many
ways of disguising from itself the fact that it is resisting God, and hardening itself in
opposition to him. One form is procrastination. ot yet—a more convenient season.
A second is compromise. We shall find attempts at this with Pharaoh. By Conceding
part of what is asked-giving up some sin to which the heart is less attached—we hide
from ourselves the fact that we are resisting the chief demand. Herod observed John

the Baptist, and "when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly'
(Mark 6:20). The forms of godliness, as in the Pharisees, may Conceal from the
heart its denial of the power thereof. Conscience is quieted by church-membership,
by a religious profession. There is disguised resistance in all insincere repentance.
This is seen in Pharaoh's relentings. Even when the resistance becomes more
avowed, there are ways of partially disguising the fact that it is indeed God we are
resisting. Possibly the heart tries to wriggle out of the duty of submission by
cavilling at the evidence of revelation. Or, objection is perhaps taken to something
in the manner or form in which the truth has been presented; some alleged defect of
taste, or infelicity of illustration, or rashness of statement, or blunder in science, or
possibly a slip in grammar. Any straw will serve which admits of being clutched at.
So conviction is pushed off, decision is delayed, resistance is kept up, and all the
while the heart is getting harder—less sensible of the truth, more ensnared in error.
It is well also to remember that even failure to profit by the word, without active
resistance to it (if such a thing is possible)—simple want of care in the cherishing of
good impressions, and too rash an exposure to the influences which tend to dissipate
and destroy them—will result in their disappearance, and in a consequent
hardening of the heart. The impressions will not readily return with the same
vividness. To-day, then, and now, hear and obey the voice of God.—J.O.
BI 3-4, "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders.
The struggle between God’s will and Pharaoh’s
The text brings before us the two great results which God forewarned Moses would rise
from the struggle between His will and Pharaoh’s. On the one hand, the tyranny was to
be gradually overthrown by the sublime manifestations of the power of the Lord; on the
other, the heart of Pharaoh himself was to be gradually hardened in the conflict with the
Lord.
I. Why was the overthrow of Pharaoh’s tyranny through the miracles of Moses so
gradual? Why did not God, by one overwhelming miracle, crush for ever the power of the
king?
1. It was not God’s purpose to terrify Pharaoh into submission. He treats men as
voluntary creatures, and endeavours, by appealing to all that is highest in their
natures, to lead them into submission.
2. In his determination to keep Israel in slavery, Pharaoh had two supports—his
confidence in his own power, and the flatteries of the magicians. Through both these
sources the miracles appealed to the very heart of the man.
3. The miracles appealed to Pharaoh through the noblest thing he had left—his own
sense of religion. When the sacred river became blood, and the light turned to
darkness, and the lightning gleamed before him, he must have felt that the hidden
God of nature was speaking to him. Not until he had been warned and appealed to in
the most powerful manner did the final judgment come.
II. We are told that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened by the miracles which overthrew
his purpose. What does this mean? One of the most terrible facts in the world is the
battle between God’s will and man’s. In Pharaoh we see an iron will manifesting itself in
tremendous resistance, the results of which were the hardening and the overthrow.

There are three possible explanations of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
1. It may be attributed entirely to the Divine sovereignty. But this explanation is
opposed to the letter of Scripture. We read that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
2. We may attribute it wholly to Pharaoh himself. But the Bible says distinctly, “The
Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
3. We may combine the two statements, and thus we shall get at the truth. It is true
that the Lord hardened Pharaoh, and true also that Pharaoh hardened himself. (E. L.
Hull, B. A.)
Hardening of conscience
It is a very terrible thing to let conscience begin to grow hard, for it soon chills into
northern iron and steel. It is like the freezing of a pond. The first film of ice is scarcely
perceptible; keep the water stirring and you will prevent the frost from hardening it; but
once let it film over and remain quiet, the glaze thickens over the surface, and it thickens
still, and at last it is so firm that a waggon might be drawn over the solid ice. So with
conscience, it films over gradually, until at last it becomes hard and unfeeling, and is not
crushed even with ponderous loads of iniquity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seven characteristics of Pharaoh
I. Ignorant (Exo_5:2).
II. Disobedient (Exo_5:2).
III. Unbelieving (Exo_5:9).
IV. Foolish (Exo_8:10).
V. Hardened (Exo_8:15).
VI. Privileged (Exo_9:1).
VII. Lost (Exo_14:26-28). (C. Inglis.)
Judicial hardness of heart inflicted by God
I. I shall give some general observations from the story; for in the story of Pharaoh we
have the exact platform of a hard heart.
1. Between the hard heart and God there is an actual contest who shall have the
better. The parties contesting are God and Pharaoh.
2. The sin that hardened Pharaoh, and put him upon this contest, was covetousness
and interest of State.
3. This contest on Pharaoh’s part is managed with slightings and contempt of God;
on God’s part, with mercy and condescension.
4. The first plague on Pharaoh’s heart is delusion. Moses worketh miracles, turneth
Aaron’s rod into a serpent, rivers into blood, bringeth frogs, and the magicians still
do the same; God permitteth these magical impostures, to leave Pharaoh in his wilful

error.
5. God was not wanting to give Pharaoh sufficient means of conviction. The
magicians turned their rods into serpents, but “Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods”
(Exo_7:12); which showeth God’s super-eminent power.
6. Observe, in one of the plagues Israel might have stolen away, whether Pharaoh
would or no (Exo_10:22-23): but God had more miracles to be done. When He hath
to do with a hard heart, He will not steal out of the field, but go away with honour
and triumph. This was to be a public instance, and for intimation to the world (1Sa_
6:6). The Philistines took warning by it, and it will be our condemnation if we do not.
7. In all these plagues I observe that Pharaoh now and then had his devout pangs. In
a hard heart there may be some relentings, but no true repentance.
8. In process of time his hardness turns into rage and downright malice (Exo_
10:28). Men first slight the truth, and then are hardened against it, and then come to
persecute it. A river, when it hath been long kept up, swelleth and beareth down the
bank and rampire; so do wicked men rage when their consciences cannot withstand
the light, and their hearts will not yield to it.
9. At length Pharaoh is willing to let them go. After much ado God may get
something from a hard heart; but it is no sooner given but retracted; like fire struck
out of a flint, it is hardly got, and quickly gone (Hos_6:4).
10. The last news that we hear of hardening Pharaoh’s heart was a little before his
destruction (Exo_14:8). Hardness of heart will not leave us till it hath wrought our
full and final destruction. Never any were hardened but to their own ruin.
II. How God hardens.
1. Negatively.
(1) God infuseth no hardness and sin as he infuseth grace. All influences from
heaven are sweet and good, not sour. Evil cannot come from the Father of lights.
God enforceth no man to do evil.
(2) God doth not excite the inward propension to sin; that is Satan’s work.
2. Affirmatively.
(1) By desertion, taking away the restraints of grace, whereby He lets them loose
to their own hearts (Psa_81:12). Man, in regard to his inclinations to sin, is like a
greyhound held by a slip or collar; when the hare is in sight, take away the slip,
and the greyhound runneth violently after the hare, according to his inbred
disposition. Men are held in by the restraints of grace, which, when removed,
they are left to their own swing, and run into all excess of riot.
(2) By tradition. He delivereth them up to the power of Satan, who worketh upon
the corrupt nature of man, and hardeneth it; he stirreth him up as the
executioner of God’s curse; as the evil spirit had leave to seduce Ahab (1Ki_
22:21-22).
(3) There is an active providence which deposeth and propoundeth such objects
as, meeting with a wicked heart, maketh it more hard. God maketh the best
things the wicked enjoy to turn to the fall and destruction of those that have
them. In what a sad case are wicked men left by God! Mercies corrupt them, and
corrections enrage them; as unsavoury herbs, the more they are pounded, the

more they stink. As all things work together for good to them that love God, so all
things work for the worst to the wicked and impenitent. Providences and
ordinances; we read of them that wrest the scriptures to their own destruction
(2Pe_3:16). Some are condemned to worldly happiness; by ease and abundance
of prosperity they are entangled: “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them”
(Pro_1:32); as brute creatures, when in good plight, grow fierce and man-keen. If
we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. (T. Manton, D. D.)
A hardened heart
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by submitting to him those truths, arguments, and
evidences which he ought to have accepted, but the rejection of which recoiled upon
himself, and hardened the heart they did not convince. Everybody knows, in the present
day, that if you listen, Sunday after Sunday, to great truths, and, Sunday after Sunday,
reject them, you grow in your capacity of repulsion and ability to reject them, and the
more hardened you become; and thus, the preaching of the gospel that was meant to
melt, will be the occasion of hardening your heart—not because God hates you, but
because you reject the gospel. The sun itself melts some substances, whilst, from the
nature of the substances, it hardens others. You must not think that God stands in the
way of your salvation. There is nothing between the greatest sinner and instant
salvation, but his own unwillingness to lean on the Saviour, and be saved. (J. Cumming,
D. D.)
The punishment of unbelief
The gospel is “the savour of life unto life, and of death unto death,” as one and the same
savour is to some creatures refreshing, to others poisonous. But that the gospel is unto
death, is not a part of its original intention, but a consequence of perverse unbelief; but
when this takes place, that it is unto death comes as a punishment from God. Thus the
expression “hardening” presupposes an earlier condition, when the heart was
susceptible, but which ceased in consequence of the misuse, of Divine revelations and
gifts. As Pharaoh hardens himself, so God hardens him at the same time. (Otto Von
Gerlach, D. D.)
Heart-hardening
1. Both the expressions employed and the facts themselves lead to the conclusion,
that hardening can only take place where there is a conflict between human freedom
and Divine grace.
2. Again, it follows from the notion of hardening, that it can only result from a
conscious and obstinate resistance to the will of God. It cannot take place where
there is either ignorance or error. So long as a man has not been fully convinced that
he is resisting the power and will of God, there remains a possibility that as soon as
the conviction of this is brought home to his mind, his heart may be changed, and so
long as there is still a possibility of his conversion, he cannot be said to be really
hardened. The commencement of hardening is really hardening itself, for it contains
the whole process of hardening potentially within itself. This furnishes us with two

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Exodus 7 commentary