What Does Exodus 10:27 Mean?
But the LORD gripped Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to send them away.
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, and he would not let them go.THE KEY
The LORD makes Pharaoh’s heart firm at the very point where Pharaoh refuses to send the people out.
THE MEANING
A refusal can become fixed around withholding release. The verse holds the mystery plainly: the LORD strengthens Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh will not send the people away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every hardened heart is only the product of its owner’s will: this verse names the LORD as the one who strengthens Pharaoh’s heart.
THE ROOT
לְשַׁלְּחָם
leshalleḥam
GROWS FROM
שלח
to send, send forth, or release
The phrase rendered “let them go” carries the sense of sending the people forth. The refusal is a refusal of release: Pharaoh keeps them from the movement that would take them out of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: to send away, dismiss, release
שִׁלֵּחַ
This verb makes clear that the withheld act is a sending forth, not merely an opening of the hand.
Shiloah: sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah
שִׁלֹּחַ
The name of waters that flow forth echoes the movement Pharaoh blocks here.
וַיְחַזֵּק
vayḥazzeq
GROWS FROM
חזק
to be strong; to strengthen or make firm
“gripped” in this verse is vayḥazzeq. The root holds firmness and strength inside “hardened”: Pharaoh’s heart is made resolute in its resistance. Beside shalach, that firmness gathers around a refusal to release.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: strong, firm
חָזָק
This adjective shows the strength carried by the root that describes Pharaoh’s heart being made firm.
hithḥazzēq: to strengthen oneself, take courage
הִתְחַזֵּק
The same root can describe becoming strong, illuminating the force behind the heart’s fixed resistance.
THE PATTERN
Repeated refusal to release can make a heart firm in its resistance.
And Pharaoh made his heart heavy this time also, and would not let the people go.Do not stiffen your heart, as at Meribah, the striving, as on the day of Massah, the testing place, in the wilderness.But urge one another each day, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceit of falling short.THE THREAD
And the heart of Pharaoh was gripped, and he would not let the children of Israel go, as the LORD had spoken by the hand of Moses.The same roots recur: חזק (chazaq, strengthen or make firm) describes Pharaoh’s heart, while שלח (shalach, send forth or release) names what he withholds. Together they show firmness gathering around the refusal to release.
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