What Does Exodus 7:3 Mean in the King James?

And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 7:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

God multiplies the signs while actively making Pharaoh’s heart hard, so revelation and resistance rise together.

THE MEANING

God’s agency stands inside Pharaoh’s resistance: God says he hardens Pharaoh’s heart even as signs and wonders multiply in Egypt. The verse lets these acts coexist without claiming that greater display produces immediate openness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a greater display of God’s power must make every heart receptive; here, signs multiply while the heart is hardened.

THE ROOT

אַקְשֶׁה

ʾaqšeh

GROWS FROM

קשה

⁨קשה⁩ (qashah) means to be hard, difficult, or severe; in the causative form used here, it means to make hard or difficult.

“harden” in this verse is ʾaqšeh. The Hebrew ⁨אַקְשֶׁה⁩ (ʾaqšeh, “I will make hard”) makes God the active agent in Pharaoh’s hardening. The same root appears in ⁨קָשֶׁה⁩ (qāšeh, “hard” or “difficult”) and ⁨קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף⁩ (qesheh-ʿoref, “stiff-necked”), linking the heart’s hardening with the language of resistance becoming fixed.

ALSO GROWS

qāšeh: Hard, difficult, or severe.

קָשֶׁה

This adjective shares the root’s consonants and shows how hardness can describe difficulty or severity, as well as Pharaoh’s resistance.

qesheh-ʿoref: Stiff-necked; hard-necked.

קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף

This phrase uses the same adjective from ⁨קשה⁩, extending the image of hardness from the heart to the neck and naming stubborn resistance.

THE PATTERN

Scripture holds divine action and human resistance together without treating signs as a guarantee of receptivity.

And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

Exodus 7:13 · KJVPharaoh’s heart remains hard as the signs are presented, repeating the verse’s pairing of divine action and resistance.

But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

John 12:37 · KJVMany visible works appear alongside continued unbelief, showing that signs do not compel receptivity.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Romans 9:18 · KJVThe verse names God’s agency in hardening directly, echoing the tension in Exodus.

THE THREAD

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Deuteronomy 10:16 · KJV

The phrase “be no more stiffnecked” uses the same ⁨קשה⁩ root as “I will harden” here. The agency shifts sharply: in Exodus God names himself as the one hardening Pharaoh; in Deuteronomy the people are told not to harden their own necks.

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