Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?

Pharaoh’s Refusal

When Pharaoh refused to release God’s people from slavery, most English translations say that “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen” to Moses’ demand for freedom. The Hebrew for “hardened” here is חזק (hazaq) and “heart” is לב (lev). When readers see that the Lord “hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it sounds like Pharaoh would let the Israelites go, but God stops him by overriding his autonomy.

A Hebrew Difference 

However, hazaq means to “strengthen,” and along with “heart,” lev can also mean “desire” or “will.” Thus, an equally valid translation is that “the Lord strengthened Pharaoh’s will.” Do you see the difference here? It does not mean that God forced him to do something against his will, but just the opposite: it was already Pharaoh’s will to keep the Israelites enslaved, so God strengthened the pharaonic will that was already there.

Pharaoh and Free Will

If you’ll forgive a somewhat crude analogy, there’s a well-known story of parents catching their teenager smoking. Instead of taking the cigarettes away, the parents say, “So you want to smoke cigarettes, do you? Well, now we’re going to make you go through the entire pack!” The parental logic here is that the teenager would get so sick that he or she would never want another cigarette again!

While I don’t recommend this method for parenting teenagers, it works as an analogy because this is essentially what God does to Pharaoh: God says, “So you refuse to let my people go? Ok, then I’m going to reinforce your stubborn will and watch you go through an entire pack of plagues.” The Lord doesn’t take away Pharaoh’s free will when he refuses to let the people go; rather, God reinforces or strengthens that will.