What Does Exodus 10:20 Mean?
But the LORD gripped Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.THE KEY
The verse makes hardening visible as withheld release: the heart made firm will not send the people out.
THE MEANING
The LORD hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh does not release Israel from his land. The verse holds divine hardening and human refusal together without easing the tension between them. Captivity remains in place as release is withheld.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusing to release is passive: withholding release actively sustains captivity.
THE ROOT
שִׁלַּח
shillaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, send forth, release, or let go.
“did not let the children of Israel go” in this verse is shillaḥ. The Hebrew verb שִׁלַּח (shillaḥ, “sent away” or “released”) names the action Pharaoh withholds. The verse’s demand is not merely that he stop gripping the people; it is that he send them out.
ALSO GROWS
shālaḥ: Send or send forth.
שָׁלַח
This form makes the movement in “let … go” explicit: the people are to be sent out.
Shiloach: “Sent”; the name associated with the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 glosses Siloam as “Sent.” The same root’s outward movement is linked with waters through which sight is restored.
וַיְחַזֵּק
wayḥazzēq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong or firm; strengthen, make firm, or hold fast.
“gripped” in this verse is wayḥazzēq. The Hebrew verb comes from חזק (ḥ-z-q), “be strong” or “make firm.” That firmness is exposed by what follows: Pharaoh’s heart holds fast against the demand to release.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong or become firm.
חָזַק
It shows the strength-language beneath “hardened”: the heart is made firm in its refusal.
heḥĕzîq: Take hold of or hold fast.
הֶחֱזִיק
The sense of holding fast sharpens the contrast with שִׁלַּח (shillaḥ, “release”): Pharaoh’s heart holds firm where the people are meant to be sent out.
THE PATTERN
Bondage is sustained by withheld release, while deliverance is voiced as sending people out and opening what is bound.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The Hebrew verb שִׁלַּח (shillaḥ, “send away” or “release”) appears as the demand “Let my people go.” Here the same demand meets a heart made firm against it: the refusal stops the sending out.
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