Keluaran 4:21

4:21 The Lord said ¹  to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, ²  see that you ³  do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. ⁴  But I will harden ⁵  his heart ⁶  and ⁷  he will not let the people go.

Keluaran 6:5

6:5 I ⁸  have also heard ⁹  the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, ¹⁰  and I have remembered my covenant. ¹¹ 

Keluaran 7:3

7:3 But I will harden ¹²  Pharaoh’s heart, and although I will multiply ¹³  my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt,

Keluaran 10:1

The Eighth Blow: Locusts

10:1 ¹⁴ The Lord said ¹⁵  to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display ¹⁶  these signs of mine before him, ¹⁷ 

Keluaran 11:9

11:9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders ¹⁸  may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

Ulangan 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹⁹  ever before tried to deliver ²⁰  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ²¹  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ²²  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Ulangan 4:2

4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ²³  you.

1 Tawarikh 6:32

6:32 They performed music ²⁴  before the sanctuary ²⁵  of the meeting tent until Solomon built the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. ²⁶  They carried out their tasks according to regulations.

[4:21]  ¹ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:21]  ² tn The construction may involve a verbal hendiadys using the two infinitive forms: “when you go to return” (בְּלֶכְתְּךָ לָשׁוּב, bÿlekhtÿkha lashuv). The clause is temporal, subordinated to the instruction to do the signs. Therefore, its focus cannot be on going to return, i.e., preparing or beginning to return.

[4:21]  ³ tn The two verb forms in this section are the imperative (רְאֵה, rÿ’eh) followed by the perfect with the vav (וַעֲשִׂיתָם, va’asitam). The second could be coordinated and function as a second command: “see…and [then] do”; or it could be subordinated logically: “see…so that you do.” Some commentators who take the first option suggest that Moses was supposed to contemplate these wonders before doing them before Pharaoh. That does not seem as likely as the second interpretation reflected in the translation.

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Or “in your power”; Heb “in your hand.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “strengthen” (in the sense of making stubborn or obstinate). The text has the expression וַאֲנִי אֲחַזֵּק אֶת־לִבּוֹ (va’ani ’akhazzeq ’et-libbo), “I will make strong his will,” or “I will strengthen his resolve,” recognizing the “heart” as the location of decision making (see Prov 16:1, 9).

[4:21]  ⁶ sn Here is the first mention of the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh. God first tells Moses he must do the miracles, but he also announces that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, as if working against Moses. It will help Moses to know that God is bringing about the resistance in order to bring a greater victory with greater glory. There is a great deal of literature on this, but see among the resources F. W. Danker, “Hardness of Heart: A Study in Biblical Thematic,” CTM 44 (1973): 89-100; R. R. Wilson, “The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart,” CBQ 41 (1979): 18-36; and R. B. Chisholm Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34.

[4:21]  ⁷ tn Or “so that.”

[6:5]  ⁸ tn The addition of the independent pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “I”) emphasizes the fact that it was Yahweh himself who heard the cry.

[6:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “And also I have heard.”

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn The form is the Hiphil participle מַעֲבִדִים (ma’avidim, “causing to serve”). The participle occurs in a relative clause that modifies “the Israelites.” The clause ends with the accusative “them,” which must be combined with the relative pronoun for a smooth English translation. So “who the Egyptians are enslaving them,” results in the translation “whom the Egyptians are enslaving.”

[6:5]  ¹¹ tn As in Exod 2:24, this remembering has the significance of God’s beginning to act to fulfill the covenant promises.

[7:3]  ¹² tn The clause begins with the emphatic use of the pronoun and a disjunctive vav (ו) expressing the contrast “But as for me, I will harden.” They will speak, but God will harden.

[7:3]  sn The imperfect tense of the verb קָשָׁה (qasha) is found only here in these “hardening passages.” The verb (here the Hiphil for “I will harden”) summarizes Pharaoh’s resistance to what God would be doing through Moses – he would stubbornly resist and refuse to submit; he would be resolved in his opposition. See R. R. Wilson, “The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart,” CBQ 41 (1979): 18-36.

[7:3]  ¹³ tn The form beginning the second half of the verse is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, הִרְבֵּיתִי (hirbeti). It could be translated as a simple future in sequence after the imperfect preceding it, but the logical connection is not obvious. Since it carries the force of an imperfect due to the sequence, it may be subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause that begins in v. 4. That maintains the flow of the argument.

[10:1]  ¹⁴ sn The Egyptians dreaded locusts like every other ancient civilization. They had particular gods to whom they looked for help in such catastrophes. The locust-scaring deities of Greece and Asia were probably looked to in Egypt as well (especially in view of the origins in Egypt of so many of those religious ideas). The announcement of the plague falls into the now-familiar pattern. God tells Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh but reminds Moses that he has hardened his heart. Yahweh explains that he has done this so that he might show his power, so that in turn they might declare his name from generation to generation. This point is stressed so often that it must not be minimized. God was laying the foundation of the faith for Israel – the sovereignty of Yahweh.

[10:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[10:1]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is שִׁתִי (shiti, “I have put”); it is used here as a synonym for the verb שִׂים (sim). Yahweh placed the signs in his midst, where they will be obvious.

[10:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in his midst.”

[11:9]  ¹⁸ sn The thought is essentially the same as in Exod 7:3-4, but the wonders, or portents, here refer to what is yet to be done in Egypt.

[4:34]  ¹⁹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ²⁰ tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ²¹ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ²² tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[4:2]  ²³ tn Heb “commanding.”

[6:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they were serving…with music.”

[6:32]  ²⁵ tn Or traditionally “tabernacle.”

[6:32]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.