THIS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

After the frogs, Exodus says Pharaoh "hardened his heart" himself (Exodus 8:15). At which plague does the book first say "the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh"?

The answer

Boils. After the frogs, "he hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:15), and after the flies, "Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also" (Exodus 8:32). At the boils the wording turns around: "the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12). The Lord does it again at the locusts and the darkness (Exodus 10:20; Exodus 10:27).

Why it’s interesting

Whether Pharaoh or the Lord did the hardening, the text twice adds that it happened just as the Lord had said (Exodus 8:15; Exodus 9:12). A note in the New Oxford Annotated Bible says the back-and-forth probably comes from older stories that were later combined. In the finished text, the note adds, it may also show the pull between God's plan and Pharaoh's own will.

Scholarly consensus

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