What Does Exodus 7:23 Mean?
And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not place his heart upon this either.
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
And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.THE KEY
The verb beneath “set his heart” means to place, so Pharaoh’s refusal is pictured as withholding his inner attention from what stands before him.
THE MEANING
Something can be seen without being received inwardly. You can return to the familiar while leaving your attention unplaced toward what you have just seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that seeing a sign automatically means the heart has received it. What reaches the eyes can leave inward attention untouched.
THE ROOT
שָׁת
shat
GROWS FROM
שית
Put, place, set.
“set” in this verse is shat. The verb pictures Pharaoh as withholding the placement of his heart toward what he sees. The same root appears in Exodus 10:1 where the KJV says God will “shew” signs; the Hebrew verb carries the sense of placing them among the people.
ALSO GROWS
shat: He set or placed.
שָׁת
This is the verb in Exodus 7:23: Pharaoh does not place his heart toward what has happened.
shiti: To place or set.
שִׁיתִי
In Exodus 10:1, this form describes setting signs among the people, rendered “shew” in the KJV.
THE PATTERN
What reaches the senses can still be refused the inward place where it becomes understanding.
Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear and respond, to this day.For they did not put the loaves together, for their heart had turned to stone.For the heart of this people has grown thick, and with their ears they hear heavily, and they have shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and gather it together with their heart, and turn back, and I would heal them.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Moses, Come in to Pharaoh, for I have made heavy his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I may set these my signs in his midst.The Hebrew verb translated “set” in Exodus 7:23 and “shew” here comes from שית (shith), meaning to place or set. Signs are set among Pharaoh’s people while Pharaoh does not set his heart toward what he sees, joining outward display and inward reception through one root.
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