Hardening of the Heart

Biblical Texts

The principal passage is the account of Pharaoh in Exodus 4–14. God tells Moses in advance that he will harden Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21; 7:3). Throughout the Ten Plagues, the text repeatedly records that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and the hardening is attributed to three different subjects.

• Pharaoh as subject: Pharaoh hardens his own heart (8:15; 8:32).
• Passive voice: The text states only that Pharaoh's heart "was hardened" (7:13; 9:7).
• The LORD as subject: The LORD hardens Pharaoh's heart (9:12; 10:20; 14:4).

Original Language and Background

The Hebrew text uses three verbs in particular.

• Chazaq: to strengthen, to make firm
• Kabed: to make heavy
• Qashah: to make hard or stubborn

Korean translations of the Bible render these verbs with terms such as wanak-hada ("hardened"), wangang-hada ("obstinate"), and wango-hada ("stubborn"). The Korean Revised Version, which preceded the New Korean Revised Version, frequently used gangpyak-hada ("hard-hearted"). For the Hebrews, the "heart" was the seat not only of emotion but also of thought and decision. A hardened heart therefore signifies something close to the closing of one's judgment and will.

Meaning Across Scripture

The Old Testament records other instances of hardened hearts besides Pharaoh's. It states that God made the heart of King Sihon obstinate (Deuteronomy 2:30). Isaiah 6:9–10 records a commission to make the heart of the people dull, a passage quoted in Matthew 13:14–15 and in Acts 28. Ezekiel delivers the promise that God will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25–27).

The theme continues in the New Testament.

• Jesus says that the provision for divorce was given because of the hardness of people's hearts (Mark 10:2–12).
• Paul, citing Pharaoh as an example, writes that God hardens whom he will (Romans 9:18–23).
• Paul says that blindness has happened in part to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).
• Hebrews 3–4 quotes Psalm 95. Holding up the wilderness generation as a warning, it exhorts readers not to harden their hearts.

Interpretation and Debate

This subject is bound up with the debate over predestination and free will, which concerns how God's sovereignty relates to human responsibility.

• The Calvinist tradition: In this tradition, which includes Presbyterian churches, Pharaoh's hardening is read as God's sovereign decree (his foreordaining) and righteous judgment. Romans 9 is regarded as one of the scriptural foundations of the doctrine of predestination.
• The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions: Methodists, Holiness churches, and others draw attention to the sequence of the narrative. In the narrative portions of Exodus, the LORD first appears as the subject of the hardening only after the sixth plague (9:12). On this basis, these traditions tend to read the account as Pharaoh first hardening his own heart, with God then confirming that choice as judgment. Some also take Romans 9 as concerning God's plan of salvation in history rather than the eternal destiny of individuals.

Interpretations, however, vary even within the same denomination.

Some points are not addressed directly by the text. Explanations that count how many times Pharaoh hardened his own heart and how many times God hardened it, in order to identify a "point of no return," are interpretations of the text's arrangement. Nor does Scripture identify which pharaoh reigned at the time of the Exodus, and scholars hold differing views.

In the Korean Church

In preaching, the expression "hardened like Pharaoh" is commonly used to describe an attitude of rejecting the Word or putting off repentance. Among church members who read the Korean Revised Version for many years, the word gangpyak-hada remains in use. Many sermons also appeal to the exhortation in Hebrews 3, "To day if ye will hear his voice" (Hebrews 3:7, 15), to urge hearers to respond now.