Exodus 7:3

Summary

Exodus 7:3 reports YHWH's first-person declaration that he will harden Pharaoh's heart and, in a sequential action, multiply his signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. The verse combines an emphatic subject pronoun, a causative verb of hardening, and a chained verb of multiplication.

Key words

• 'aNi ("I", H0589) — an independent personal pronoun added even though the verb form already marks first person; its presence creates emphasis on the subject "I" as agent.
• 'akSheh ("I will make stubborn", H7185) — hiphil (causative) imperfect stem, indicating YHWH as the one causing the hardening, with imperfect aspect pointing to ongoing or future action.
• lev ("heart of", H3820A) — masculine singular noun in construct state, requiring a following genitive ("heart of Pharaoh") rather than standing alone.
• hirbeiTi ("I will multiply", H7235A) — hiphil sequential perfect; the vav prefixed to it (ve) is a narrative/sequential vav, linking this action to the previous one as continuation in the discourse chain rather than as simple coordination.
• 'ototai ("my signs", H0226G) and mofeTai ("my wonders", H4159) — both plural construct nouns bearing the first-person suffix -i ("my"), marking the signs and wonders as belonging to the speaker (YHWH).

What the text says

The sentence opens with the conjunction va attached to the emphatic pronoun 'aNi, placing grammatical weight on "I" as the one who acts, distinguishing the subject from any other possible agent in the surrounding narrative. The hiphil stem of 'akSheh signals causation: the subject does not merely become hard but causes hardness in the object, here lev Par'oh ("heart of Pharaoh"), where lev stands in construct relationship to the divine name/title that follows.

The second clause uses ve-hirbeiTi, a perfect form with a sequential vav that in Biblical Hebrew narrative continues the temporal or logical flow initiated by the preceding imperfect. This construction (imperfect followed by sequential perfect) presents the multiplying of 'ototai ("my signs") and mofeTai ("my wonders") as a further, connected event rather than a separate independent statement. Both nouns carry the first-person possessive suffix -i, marking the signs and wonders explicitly as belonging to the speaker. The final prepositional phrase be'Eretz Mitzrayim ("in the land of Egypt") locates the action geographically, with 'Eretz in construct before the proper name Mitzrayim.

Differences between versions

The BSB renders the connecting ve- before "I will multiply" as concessive ("though I will multiply"), introducing a contrastive nuance not present in the Hebrew, which uses a straightforward sequential vav. The SBLIBRE translation renders the same clause with a purpose construction ("para multiplicar," "in order to multiply"), presenting the multiplying of signs as the goal of the hardening rather than as a chained, sequential action as the Hebrew grammar suggests. The Vulgate reads "cor ejus" ("his heart") rather than naming "Pharaoh" directly at this point, relying on context for the referent, while the Hebrew and LXX both name Pharaoh explicitly in this clause.