Exodus 9:35

And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened,.... Instead of being softened, as it seemed to be when under the plague, it became harder and harder when delivered from it: neither would he let the children

Exodus 9:35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.Ver. 35. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.] Judicially; and penally, after that he had first hardened his own heart.

Verse 35. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened] In consequence of his sinning yet more, and hardening his own heart against both the judgments and mercies of God, we need not be surprised that, after God had given him the means of softening and repentance, and he had in every instance resisted and abused them, he should at last have been left to the hardness and darkness of his own obstinate heart, so as to fill up the measure of his iniquity, and rush headlong to his own destruction. IN the fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues described in this chapter, we have additional proofs of the justice and mercy of God, as well as of the stupidity, rebellion, and wickedness of Pharaoh and his courtiers. As these continued to contradict and resist, it was just that God should continue to inflict those punishments which their iniquities deserved. Yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy; and therefore Moses and Aaron are sent to inform the Egyptians that such plagues would come if they continued obstinate. Here is mercy; the cattle only are destroyed, and the people saved! Is it not evident from all these messages, and the repeated expostulations of Moses and Aaron in the name and on the authority of God, that Pharaoh was bound by no fatal necessity to continue his obstinacy; that he might have humbled himself before God, and thus prevented the disasters that fell on the land, and saved himself and his people from destruction? But he would sin, and therefore he must be punished. In the sixth plague Pharaoh had advantages which he had not before. The magicians, by their successful imitations of the miracles wrought by Moses, made it doubtful to the Egyptians whether Moses himself was not a magician acting without any Divine authority; but the plague of the boils, which they could not imitate, by which they were themselves afflicted, and which they confessed to be the finger of God, decided the business. Pharaoh had no longer any excuse, and must know that he had now to contend, not with Moses and Aaron, mortals like himself, but with the living God. How strange, then, that he should continue to resist! Many affect to be astonished at this, and think it must be attributed only to a sovereign controlling influence of God, which rendered it impossible for him to repent or take warning. But the whole conduct of God shows the improbability of this opinion: and is not the conduct of Pharaoh and his courtiers copied and reacted by thousands who are never suspected to be under any such necessitating decree? Every sinner under heaven, who has the Bible in his hand, is acting the same part.

13–35. The seventh plague. The hail. From J, with short passages, probably, from E. 13, 17–18. The announcement of the plague: cf. Exodus 8:1-3; Exodus 8:20-23, Exodus 9:1-4.

Hardened - Different words in the Hebrew. In Exodus 9:34 the word means “made heavy,” i. e. obtuse, incapable of forming a right judgment; in Exodus 9:35 it is stronger, and implies a stubborn resolution.

SEVENTH PLAGUE — THE HAIL, Exodus 9:13-35. The third triad of judgments is introduced with unusual formality and solemnity. Pharaoh was now a “vessel of wrath,” fit only for destruction. See note on Exodus 9:12.