The deliberate willfulness and hardness of Pharaoh's heart is most evident, in spite of the Lord, but then Jehovah's hardening it in His government is equally plain. There are three words used for hardening, and it must be seen if there is any special use of them, for they are different; khazak, kaved and kashah-the second of these, kaved (is heavy) is chiefly used for Pharaoh's hardening his own heart; the first, khazak (he tied fast, made firm) is used intransitively, but also actively of Jehovah, and I suppose of Pharaoh also; the third, kashah (is heavy) is used actively for what God did. Thus in chapter 4: 21 akhazzek (I will harden), in chapter 7: 3, ak'sheh (I will harden), in both cases with ani (I), I suppose emphatic, like ego.
13. In this verse it is doubtful, as khazak has a neuter sense also, but in the next verse (14) kaved is used to describe the state, but my impression is that it is intransitive, as in chapter 8: 15, 19; whereas, when actively Jehovah, it is always vaiini... eth libbo (and I... his heart); hence verse 13 would be " and Pharaoh's heart was hard," i.e., firm, unmovedkashah is more "' obdurate." The form with kaved is the same I have supposed—neuter, with khazak, that is kaved 1ev Phar'oh (Pharaoh's heart was hardened, verse 14) and yekh'zak 1evPhar'oh (Pharaoh's heart was hardened, verse 22)—in the former, it is clearly the state, or it would be k'ved'ti (I hardened) or ani k'ved'ti (I hardened).
14. The English gives in the previous verse, "He hardened Pharaoh's heart," and here, in this verse, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened," for the same words; the sense is "remained firm and unmoved." Kaved is, I suppose, stupid, heavy obduracy; kashah is hard, bitter, severe, as in Gen. 42:77And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. (Genesis 42:7), Ex. 1:1414And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor. (Exodus 1:14) and chap. 6: 9. It is a hard, embittered feeling against what one has no strength against, or is ill seen. Kaved is used actively (in hiphil) as to Pharaoh himself, but the form of phrase is, as the others supposed, active—eth-libbo (his heart), chapter 8:15, 19, was hardened (hard) is right, as elsewhere, save in chapter 7: 13.