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Exodus 10:20

in Exodus 10

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

But Jehovah hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

KJV

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.

This verse in Exodus 10

Commentary

1 note on this verse

This site's exposition

so that he would not let the children of Israel go

This is one of nineteen statements about Pharaoh's heart in the book, and from 9:12 onward the LORD is the subject of every one of them. Through the first five plagues the text either puts the act on Pharaoh or leaves it stative, at 7:13, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32 and 9:7, and the order of those statements matters to both sides of the argument. Romans 9:17 quotes Exodus 9:16 and Romans 9:18 draws the words whom he will he hardeneth out of it. Sproul reads the whole sequence as one act with two true descriptions, divine sovereignty and human responsibility each real, while the free-will reading takes the order as God confirming a man in the direction he had already chosen.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְחַזֵּ֥קand he made strong

    vaychazekH2388291 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • לֵ֣ב[the] heart of

    levH3820595 times

  • פַּרְעֹ֑הPharaoh

    parohH6547274 times

  • וְלֹ֥אand not

    velo'H38085168 times

  • שִׁלַּ֖חhe let go

    shilachH7971845 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • בְּנֵ֥י[the] people of

    beneiH11214930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ פIsrael

    yisraelH34782507 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Romans 9:18

    Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 4:21

      The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that…

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Joshua 11:20

      For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the LORD…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Romans 9:15–16

      For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

    • 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12

      and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

  • Through

    Exodus 4:21

    The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that…

    it leads to

    • Romans 9:18

      Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

    • Isaiah 63:17

      Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

    • Exodus 14:8

      And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out defiantly.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 2:30

    But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as…

    it leads to

    • Numbers 21:23

      But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. Instead, he gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.

About Exodus

The Ninth Plague. Darkness — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Ninth Plague. Darkness — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God.