Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 9:34
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
34. hardened his heart ] made his heart stubborn (lit. heavy), J’s regular word: see on Exo 7:13.
35 (E). was hardened ] waxed strong (or firm), the word used by E: cf. Exo 10:20; Exo 10:27, Exo 4:21 b.
as Jehovah had spoken ] This is P’s formula (Exo 7:13; Exo 7:22, Exo 8:15; Exo 8:19, Exo 9:12): the clause was probably added here, on the basis of the passages quoted, by the compiler who combined JE with P.
by the hand of Moses. Moses is never said to have foretold what is here referred to him: in Exo 9:12 ‘ unto Moses’ is said, which agrees with Exo 7:3 f. Perhaps the words are intended as a reference to v. 30.
Thunder and hail are not common in Egypt: nevertheless they occur occasionally. Different travellers (see Di., or DB. iii. 891) speak of storms of heavy rain, hail, or thunder in Egypt occurring during the winter months; and Sayce ( EHH. 169) states that in the spring of 1895 a violent storm of thunder and hail swept along the valley of the Nile and desolated 3000 acres of cultivated land. Vv. 31 f. shew that the plague took place in Jan., or thereabouts; and with this date agrees the statement in v. 19 that the cattle were at the time in the fields, for the cattle in Egypt are from Jan. to April on their pastures, while from May to Dec. they are commonly kept in their stalls.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 9:34-35
He sinned yet more.
Lessons
1. Sense of judgment and mercy without faith worketh more evil in sinners against God.
2. Mercies may prove occasions of hardening unto wicked souls; but no causes of their sin.
3. Wicked powers by unbelief harden themselves and others (Exo 9:34).
4. God sets on hardening when sinners choose to be stubborn against God.
5. Breach of promise with God is nothing with sinners.
6. Gods foretelling of sinners ways aggravates that sin abundantly (Exo 9:35). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Pharaohs conduct after the storm
I. Pharaohs conduct is often resembled by men of our day. Mens views of themselves and life change as the dark clouds roll away, and the sun breaks forth to gild their path again. This has become proverbial.
II. Pharaohs conduct reveals that his heart had been unchanged. Afflictions do change some sinners into saints. They have come out of the storm new men. But it often produces no radical change. It does not change the heart. Love only awakens permanent resistance to sin.
III. Pharaohs conduct manifested the basest ingratitude. Sin is always lamentable, but more so in the face of Divine mercy. Such insensibility to mercy is sure to bring another judgment.
IV. Pharaohs conduct was most peesumptuous.
V. Pharaohs conduct shows the amount of depravity that may lurk in a human heart. Our only safety is in humiliating ourselves before the Lord, and seeking for His grace to overcome our own stubbornness and sins. (W. Lilley.)
The cessation of penitential sorrow
1. When calamity removed.
2. When mercy bestowed.
3. When gratitude expected. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Repentance under judgments
One day, visiting a prison chaplain, the Rev. W. Harness asked him whether his ministry had been attended with success. With very little, I grieve to say, was the reply. A short time since I thought I had brought to a better state of mind a man who had attempted to murder a woman and had been condemned to death, he showed great signs of contrition after the sentence was passed upon him, and I thought I could observe the dawnings of grace upon the soul. I gave him a Bible, and he was most assiduous in the study of it, frequently quoting passages from it which he said convinced him of the heinousness of his offence. The man gave altogether such a promise of reformation, and of a change of heart and life, that I exerted myself to the utmost, and obtained for him such a commutation of his sentence as would enable him soon to begin the world again, and, as I hoped, with a happier result. I called to inform him of my success. His gratitude knew no bounds; he said I was his preserver–his deliverer. And here, he added, as he grasped my hand in parting, here is your Bible; I may as well return it to you, for I hope I shall never want it again..
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart] These were merely acts of his own; “for who can deny,” says Mr. Psalmanazar, “that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened? The verbs here used are in the conjugations pihel and hiphil, and often signify a bare permission, from which it is plain that the words should have been read, God suffered the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened.” – Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 494. Note D.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders were ceased,…. And there was a clear sky and a fine serene heaven, the black clouds were dispersed and gone, and he heard no more the clattering of the hailstones, and the terrible claps of thunder, and saw no more the flashes of lightning, but all was calm and composed:
he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants; instead of giving glory to God, who had heard the prayers of Moses and Aaron for them, and had delivered them from their frights and fears, and the terror and horror they were in, and of letting the people of Israel go, see Re 16:21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
34. And when Pharaoh saw. Again, as usual, Pharaoh gathers audacity from the mitigation of his punishment, as security arms the reprobate against God; for as soon as the scourges of God rest for awhile, they cherish the presumption that they will be unpunished, and construe the short truce into an abiding peace. Pharaoh, then, hardens anew his heart, which he seemed to have somewhat changed, as soon as he is delivered from this infliction; as though he had not been warned that others remained behind, nay, that the hand of God was already stretched out against him. Therefore, at the end of the chapter, Moses amplifies the crime when he adds, that this had been foretold (115) “by the hand of Moses.” We have sometimes seen already that the wicked king was hardened, as God had said to Moses; now, more! is expressed, viz., that Moses had been the proclaimer of his indomitable and desperate obstinacy.
(115) Exo 9:35, A.V. , marg. ref.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) Pharaoh . . . sinned yet more, and hardened his heart.As Pharaoh had never been so much moved previously, so it now required a greater effort of his will to harden his heart than it had ever done before; and thus he now sinned yet more than he had as yet sinned. It seems strange that the mercy of God should still have allowed him one other chance (Exo. 10:3-6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 9:34-35. Hardened his heartthe heart of Pharaoh was hardened In ch. Exo 4:21 the Lord says, I will harden his heart; and in the 1st verse of the next chapter, I have hardened his heart: while in several other places, as well as in the present, this act is attributed to Pharaoh himself; and, certainly, can be understood of God no otherwise, than as his judgments accidentally had this effect upon the heart of Pharaoh. The authors of the Universal History well observe, that the expression of God’s hardening the heart can signify no other, than his suffering the heart to continue hardened. “Who can deny,” say they, “that what God did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable, that it was not till after seeing the miracles, and after the ceasing of the plagues, that his heart is said to have been hardened? We think ourselves, therefore, obliged to do justice to those learned critics who have been at the pains of clearing the Scriptures from charging the great Judge of heaven and earth with such soul injustice, by proving, even against the Jews, that the verbs here used are in the conjugations piel and hiphil, as they are called by the grammarians, and signify often a bare permission; of which they have given very many unquestionable instances, which we will not here trouble the reader with, seeing he may consult the authors themselves, whose names he will find below.* From all whose, and many more authorities, it is plain, that the words ought to have been translated, that GOD suffered the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened; as all those candid persons, who are ever so little versed in the Hebrew, will readily own. As for those places, where it is said, for this cause have I set thee up, that I might shew my power, &c. it is plain they ought to have been rendered, for this cause have I suffered thee to subsist, or to stand, &c. that is, I have forborne to cut thee off, or spared thee from the common ruin, &c. which bear quite another sense; and only shew, that though he had long ago deserved to be destroyed, yet GOD thought fit to let him subsist till he had, by his many wonders, delivered his people, in spight of all his opposition.” See note on Exo 9:16. Hardness of heart may be considered either as a sin, or a punishment; as a sin, it refers to man, who, by resisting all God’s mercies and judgments, hardeneth his own heart: as a punishment it refers to GOD, who may be said to harden man’s heart in a judicial way, either by withholding the outward means of softening, or the inward grace which alone can soften; or by giving men up to their own corrupt inclinations, and the temptations of the devil, the world, and the flesh: giving them over to a reprobate mind. When God has made use of every measure to convert and reclaim, and men abuse his mercies and judgments, hardening their hearts, he then permits them to go on in their impenitency, and thus may be said himself to harden their hearts: as it is not unusual in sacred Scripture to speak of God as the author of that which he permits to be done. But of this subject I shall treat more fully when we come to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Though we use one word only in our version, the original employs three to express this hardening of the heart, which some suppose to imply a gradual increase of obduracy. Perhaps if it had been rendered, I shall harden, instead of I will harden, it would more plainly have indicated, that the hardening of Pharaoh would be the effect, but was not the design of God’s punishments.
* Arr. Montan. de Idiom. Hebr. n. 42. fin. Can. Theol. cent. ii. Gerhard. de Provid. Calov. & Rung. in Exod. Hunnin. qu. de Provid. 57. 91. Meitzer, Disp. Giess. p. 745. Mesner, Anthropol. dec. i. Pfiefer dubia V. T. cent. i. l. 87. Pelling and Whitby against Predest. Le Clerc in loc. Grot. Le Scene Essay, & al.
REFLECTIONS. How terrible the storm, how dreadful the havoc! While mighty thunders utter their voices in the heavens, and the lightnings flash around, the battering hail, resistless in its fury, beats down all before it. Egypt seems swept with the besom of destruction: men, cattle, trees, corn, lie in promiscuous ruin, while Goshen enjoys peaceful serenity. Pharaoh, astonished, humbles himself to the dust, confesses his wickedness, and entreats forgiveness. Moses immediately goes out. They need not fear, whom God protects. In the midst of the storm he prays, and is heard. Note; They who have learned to pray are thunder-proof. But no sooner does the storm cease than Pharaoh recants. Confessions extorted by fear are scarcely sooner made than revoked. How many a sinner hath trembled like Pharaoh, and, for a moment, owned a God of judgment; and then, when the danger was past, perhaps laughed at his own fears, and carried it off with a bravado.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
What an awful close to the Chapter? Alas! to what an excess of obduracy and hardiness is the human heart capable of arriving. How sweet that prayer of David, Psa 19:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 9:34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Ver. 34. But sinned yet more. ] As iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire, but soon after returns to its former hardness: so here.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
saw: Exo 8:15, Ecc 8:11
and hardened: Exo 4:21, Exo 7:14, 2Ch 28:22, 2Ch 33:23, 2Ch 36:13, Rom 2:4, Rom 2:5
Reciprocal: Exo 10:1 – I have hardened 1Sa 6:6 – the Egyptians Isa 26:10 – favour Jer 34:11 – General Amo 4:10 – yet