Exodus 11:1-10

¹ The LORD had told Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will send you away from here. When he sends you away, he will expel you, and it will be complete. ² Now tell this in the hearing of the people, so that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” ³ And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. In addition to this, the man Moses was prominent in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. ⁴ So Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: Around midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and every firstborn[1] in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. ⁶ There shall be a great outcry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ⁷ But not a dog will stick out its tongue against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, so that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸ And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹ And the LORD had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my miracles may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these miracles before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not send the people of Israel away from his land.

a heart too heavy

It was a great outcry from the Israelites that prompted God to send Moses back to Egypt for their deliverance. The tenth plague would cause a great outcry among the Egyptians. All the people were essentially begging the LORD to leave their land, and take his people with him. The only heart who had remained hard to all the previous plagues was the heart of Pharaoh. Why did he stay so stubborn? Partly it is because God is strengthening Pharaoh’s resolve as punishment for his oppression of the Israelites. The word for “hardened” in verse 10 primarily means “strengthened.” The But there is more to the story.

In The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Pharaoh’s heart was said to have been weighed by the gods at his death.[2] If it was too heavy, he and the people would be punished. That heaviness was not a sign of stubbornness, but of sin. It is no coincidence that Moses sometimes uses a word for “harden” in reference to Pharaoh’s heart that primarily means heavy.[3] He is referring to the sin in Pharaoh’s heart which is causing all the suffering and death all around him.

LORD, soften, weaken, and lighten our hearts. We want to respond to your warnings and you seriously as we aught!

[1] the term refers to the oldest child, regardless of gender.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead

[3] Kaved (7:14; 8:11,28; 9:7,34;10:1.