God Hardens Pharaoh’s Heart: Locusts and Darkness: The Lord begins actively to harden Pharaoh’s heart late in the plague cycles, and more frequently in the last three plagues. God’s hardening functions alongside the choices Pharaoh himself made to “self-harden” his heart. The Hebrew has two different words, both generally translated “hardened,” that the narrative uses interchangeably (without pattern). Khazaq refers to physical or political strengthening, as in “making tough” or uncompassionate. Kabed refers to being stubborn, self-satisfied (“fat”), or self-fulfilled (“honored”). Together these words convey Pharaoh’s calcified will, encrusted stubbornness, and the rigor mortis of his reason….

Four times God actively hardens Pharaoh’s heart (“the Lord hardened”): after the plague of boils (…