Exodus 7:1-13 CRF – The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart
The issue of Pharaoh’s hard heart has incited quite a bit of debate for centuries. It has fueled much of the fire between Calvinism and Arminianism, election and free will. I attempted to treat the subject as fairly as possible this Sunday, while leaving a lot of the technical stuff on the Cutting Room Floor. This entry today will work as a bit of a data-dump, with all the information collected into one place for your further study.
Lexical Terminology
There are four words that are used to describe Pharaoh’s hardening. It is technically a misnomer to call the issue “the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart,” since the verb “to harden” is actually only used twice in the 21x the issue is explicitly brought up in Ex 4-14. But for the sake of convenience, I will discuss the issue below with the typical “hardening” terminology.
But here are the words that are used in the text, in Hebrew, transliterated into English, with their summary definitions attached.
Hardening Passages
Before I give the references, with the translations, a brief (and oversimplified!) lesson on the Hebrew stem may help explain some of the terminology used below. Feel free to skip this next paragraph and just use the list if the technical discussion becomes, well… too technical!
The Hebrew language has seven major “stems” that tell us two things about a verb: the type of verbal action and voice of verbal action (Pratico & Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew 2nd ed., 124). The verbs in the hardening narrative of Exodus, like all other verbs in the Hebrew Bible, come from a variety of stems. I have included them below not because I expect the average churchgoer to know (or want to know!) any of them, but simply to demonstrate that the issue of the hardening is quite complicated on a number of levels: theologically, exegetically, and here, linguistically.
Here is what the references mean:
Qal: Simple Active Verb
Piel: Intensive Active Verb
Hif = Hiphil: Causative Active Verb
Nif = Niphal: Simple Passive or Reflexive Verb
Don’t get bogged down here. Below is a chart that gives my own translation of the hardening phrases in Exodus, with the appropriate data on the verbal stem attached. I have also included what “category” I would place each statement:
Category 1: God does the hardening (“God hardened Pharaoh’s heart…”)
Category 2: Pharaoh does the hardening (“Pharaoh hardened his heart…”)
Category 3: Neutral hardening (“Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…”)
Repeated Phrases
Finally, it may be helpful to categorize a list of repeated phrases that are connected with these hardening passages.
1) “so that he will not let the people go” – this purposive clause (or a variation of it) is explicitly connected to 4:21, 7:14, 8:32, 9:7, 35, 10:20, 27, 11:10, 13:15, 14:5, 8, with an ironic variation in 14:17.
2) “Pharaoh will not listen to you” – this resultant clause (or a variation of it) is explicitly connected to 7:3-4, 22, 8:15, 19, 9:12.
3) “as the LORD had said” – this phrase is explicitly connected to 7:13, 22, 8:15, 19, 9:12, 35.
4) “The servants of Pharaoh/Egyptians” – this group is mentioned in connection with the hardening in 9:34, 10:1, 14:5, 17.
I list these because they are helpful in giving us a clear depiction of the purpose and result of the hardening, as well as helping us to see that the hardening is explicitly fulfilling a word of Yahweh previously announced in the text. We also see that the issue does not only address Pharaoh, but is connected to his servants and the Egyptians as a whole.
As you can see, the issue is multilayered and complicated. Hopefully some of this information will be helpful as you continue to study this issue (I don’t pretend to have “solved” it with half a sermon!).
As always, I invite your comments, questions and concerns on the issue.
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