What Does Exodus 8:15 Mean?
But when Pharaoh saw that there was room to breathe, he made his heart heavy, and did not hear and respond to them, as the LORD had said.
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 when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.THE KEY
The verse places new room around a person beside new weight in the heart: relief can come without inward release.
THE MEANING
When the pressure lifts, the heart’s posture becomes visible: circumstances ease, yet the heart grows heavy and refuses to heed what is said. Life can open around a person while the inward response remains closed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The easing of distress proves that the heart has changed.
THE ROOT
הַכְבֵּד
hakhbed
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; in this verb form, to make heavy.
“made his heart heavy” in this verse is hakhbed. What English calls hardening is expressed as making the heart heavy. The same root gives כָּבוֹד (kāvōd), weight or glory, so the verse places weight inside the heart even as relief comes outside.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This is the root’s plain physical sense, carried into the heart’s inward state.
kāvōd: Weight; honor or glory.
כָּבוֹד
This branch makes the heart’s heaviness part of the same Hebrew language of weight.
הָרְוָחָה
hā-revāḥāh
GROWS FROM
רוח
r-w-ḥ
To have room or become spacious; by extension, to find relief.
“room to breathe” in this verse is hā-revāḥāh. The word rendered respite comes from the consonant seed ר־ו־ח, also found in רוּחַ (rûaḥ, breath and wind). The verse sets newly opened room around a person beside a heart that remains heavy.
ALSO GROWS
rāwaḥ: To have room or gain relief.
רָוַח
The verb shows respite as space opening after pressure.
rûaḥ: Breath, wind.
רוּחַ
The shared consonants connect relief and spaciousness with the word for breath.
revaḥ: Room, space, relief.
רֶוַח
This related noun echoes the opening of room contained in the respite of this verse.
שָׁמַע
shāmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or heed.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is shāmaʿ. The refusal is not merely a failure to receive sound; שָׁמַע (shāmaʿ, hear and heed) carries listening into response. The heavy heart does not let what it hears change its course.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שְׁמַע
This form makes listening an act that can include responding.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The related noun names a message received by hearing, underscoring that the refusal concerns response to a message.
THE PATTERN
When pressure eases, the response shows whether the heart has turned or its former course resumes.
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he added yet more to missing the mark, and made his heart heavy, he and his servants.And when the judge died, they turned back and ruined themselves more than their fathers, walking after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not let fall from their doings, nor from their stiff way.Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?THE THREAD
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he added yet more to missing the mark, and made his heart heavy, he and his servants.Exodus 9:34 repeats כָּבֵד (kāvēd, heavy) through הִכְבִּיד (hikhbīd, to make heavy), the same root behind this verse’s “hardened.” The rain and hail stop, yet the heart takes on weight again, revealing the recurring return to refusal after relief.
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