Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn, and he still refuses to let the people go.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn. He refuses to let the people go.
- KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
- BSB Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.
- NKJV So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go.
- NASB Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yahweh diagnoses Pharaoh's heart as stubborn and unwilling to release Israel. This sets up the first plague as God's response.
Overview
God names Pharaoh's condition plainly: his heart is heavy and resistant, refusing to let the people go. This assessment justifies the escalating judgments about to fall on Egypt. The verse shows that God sees the true state of the heart, a reminder that no rebellion is hidden from Him and that only His intervention can turn a hardened heart, as He does through the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Exod 10:27But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he wouldn’t let them go.
- Exod 8:15But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
- Exod 10:20But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go.
- Exod 10:1Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs among them,
- Isa 1:20but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”
- Exod 4:23and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”
- Zech 7:12Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies.
- Exod 9:2For if you refuse to let them go, and hold them still,
- Heb 12:25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,
- Exod 8:2If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs:
- Exod 10:4Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
- Jer 9:6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
- Jer 8:5Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit, they refuse to return.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 7:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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