Exodus 4:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

²¹Jehovah said to Moses, “When you go and return to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

Exodus mentions that a heart is hardened or unbending 19 times. In the list below, each of the situations is listed, along with the Hebrew verb used and the subject of that verb. At times the text states that the heart itself grows hard, while in other instances, there is an agent— Jehovah or Pharaoh—who does the hardening.

Reference	Verb	Subject
4:21	ḥzq	Jehovah
7:3	qšh	Jehovah
7:13	ḥzq	heart
7:14	kbd	heart
7:22	ḥzq	heart
8:15	kbd	Pharaoh
8:19	ḥzq	heart
8:32	kbd	Pharaoh
9:7	kbd	heart
9:12	ḥzq	Jehovah
9:34	kbd	heart
9:35	ḥzq	heart
10:1	kbd	Jehovah
10:20	ḥzq	Jehovah
10:27	ḥzq	Jehovah
11:10	ḥzq	Jehovah
14:4	ḥzq	Jehovah
14:8	ḥzq	Jehovah
14:17	ḥzq	Jehovah

It should be noted, Jehovah is the subject of kbd only once (10:1); all of the other times it is the heart of Pharaoh or Pharaoh himself

Jehovah God had to bring ten plagues on the land of Egypt. With each plague, the Pharaoh hardened his heart, and this allowed the people to see the great power of the real God. (Ex 7:3-5, 14–11:10) Throughout the process, many Egyptians had seen, who the true God of heaven and earth is, and that he deserves obedience. For instance, the seventh plague of hail was announced, and many Egyptians made sure their livestock was under shelter; thus they exercised faith in the Israelite God. (Ex 9:20, 21) Even in the end, when Pharaoh finally released the Israelites, he hardened his heart yet again, coming after the Israelites with his army. (Ex 14:8, 9; 15:9) However, he met destruction along with his army in the Red Sea, drawing even more attention to the great power of Jehovah God. (Ex 14:27, 28; Ps 136:15) This event promoted God’s name and reputation for decades throughout the land, as to what Jehovah did when the Pharaoh hardened his heart against Him.—Ex 18:10, 11; Jos 2:10, 11; 9:9; 1Sa 6:6.

Since God gives the people advance warnings, it could never be His fault, if they choose to become stubborn. Having said that, now let us look at what the Scriptures really say:

Exodus 7:13 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹³And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,^[1] and he would not listen to them, as Jehovah had said.

We see that Pharaoh’s heart grew hard because he would not listen.

Exodus 8:15 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was a relief, he hardened^[2] his heart and would not listen to them, as Jehovah had said.

Exodus 4:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

This is really prophetic in that God is saying what will happen as the result of His actions. In other words, it is spoken of as though God did something because his actions are what brought about the outcome that He knew would come.

God does not harden hearts against people’s free will, but he does tell us what to expect, and if we stubbornly ignore that loving insight, he did harden our heart by his actions, but it came about because of our stubbornness. In support of the above, the appendix to Rotherham’s translation shows that in Hebrew the occasion or permission of an event is often presented as if it were the cause of the event and that “even positive commands are occasionally to be accepted as meaning no more than permission.” After quoting Hebrew scholars M. M. Kalisch, H. F. W. Gesenius, and B. Davies in support, Rotherham states that the Hebrew sense of the texts involving Pharaoh is that “God permitted Pharaoh to harden his own heart, spared him, gave him the opportunity, the occasion, of working out the wickedness that was in him. That is all.”—The Emphasized Bible, appendix, p. 919; compare Isa 10:5-7.

[1] Lit strong

[2] Lit made heavy