Commentary on the Torah

by Richard Elliott Friedman

I have made his heart heavy. Earlier the text says that Pharaoh made his heart heavy. Now it says that God claims to have done it. This verse may refer only to the immediate condition; that is, that Pharaoh hardened his own heart before, but now it is God doing it. Or it may suggest dual causation; that is, even when the human (Pharaoh) decides himself, it is still God who is causing this decision. It is in the theme of YHWH’s becoming known that we may find the explanation of the contradiction that has occurred even to little children: why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart against releasing Israel and then plague Egypt for not letting them go?! The fact is that the Torah does not present the plagues as punishment of the Egyptians for enslaving the Israelites, but rather as signs by which YHWH will become known. Thus it pictures God stating unambiguously here: I have made his heart and his servants’ heart heavy for the purpose of my setting these signs of mine among them and for the purpose that you will tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son about how I abused Egypt and about my signs that I set among them, and you will know that I am YHWH. Even more dramatically, YHWH tells Moses to inform the Pharaoh that “And in fact I established you for this purpose, for the purpose of showing you my power—and in order to tell my name in all the earth” (9:16). Dispersed through the account are frequent reminders that this is the purpose of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (7:3...