Bible Synapse
Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart, or did Pharaoh harden it himself?
Hard question · Who God is · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Before Moses returns to Egypt, God foretells, “I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go”.
And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
After the first sign, “he hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (KJV); the Hebrew says that Pharaoh’s heart ‘was hard’.
And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
When the frogs were taken away, Pharaoh “hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them”.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
At the sixth plague: “the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh”.
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses.
After the hail stopped, Pharaoh “sinned yet more, and hardened his heart”.
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
The Philistines recall how “the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts”.
Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
The objection
Exodus says repeatedly that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (4:21; 9:12), and God even announces it in advance. It also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15; 9:34). If God hardened him, it seems Pharaoh could not help it, and it seems unjust to punish him for it; if Pharaoh did it, then God did not.
The answer
Exodus says both, deliberately and in a clear order. God tells Moses beforehand what will happen (4:21; 7:3). Then, after the first sign and through the first five plagues, the narrative says only that Pharaoh’s heart ‘was hard’ or that Pharaoh made it ‘heavy’ himself (7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). In 7:13 the KJV’s “he hardened Pharaoh’s heart” translates a Hebrew phrase that means ‘Pharaoh’s heart was hard’. Not until the sixth plague does the narrative say “the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh” (9:12), and even after that Pharaoh “sinned yet more, and hardened his heart” (9:34).
Pharaoh’s defiance was his own from the start: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (5:2). Keil and Delitzsch conclude that the hardening was ‘quite as much his own act as the decree of God’. God’s part was judicial: he confirmed Pharaoh in the course he had chosen and made his will firm in its own direction (the main verb, chazaq, means ‘to make strong’), so that God’s power would be shown in Egypt (9:16). The Philistines later remembered it as Pharaoh’s own doing (1 Samuel 6:6), while Paul stresses God’s sovereignty (Romans 9:17–18); both are true.
Other answers Christians give
Courage to persist
Some interpreters note that ‘make strong’ may mean that God gave Pharaoh the nerve to go on with what he wanted, rather than collapse in terror at the plagues, so that his choices stayed truly his own.
Still open
How God’s sovereignty and human responsibility fit together, the question Paul raises in Romans 9, is debated between Calvinist and Arminian Christians.
From the classic commentators
According to this, the hardening of Pharaoh was quite as much his own act as the decree of God. … It is not till after the sixth plague that it is stated that Jehovah made the heart of Pharaoh firm (Exodus 9:12).Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Exodus 4:21 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Exodus 4 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Exodus 7 (1857–78), at Bible Hub