Exodus 8:19

וַיֹּאמְרוּ הַֽחַרְטֻמִּים אֶל־פַּרְעֹה אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים הִוא וַיֶּחֱזַק לֵב־פַּרְעֹה וְלֹֽא־שָׁמַע אֲלֵהֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָֽה׃ ס

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֹּאמְר֤וּ הַֽחַרְטֻמִּים֙ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֔ה אֶצְבַּ֥ע אֱלֹהִ֖ים הִ֑וא וַיֶּחֱזַ֤ק לֵב־פַּרְעֹה֙ וְלֹֽא־שָׁמַ֣ע אֲלֵהֶ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָֽה׃ ס

Greek (Septuagint)

εἶπαν οὖν οἱ ἐπαοιδοὶ τῷ Φαραώ Δάκτυλος θεοῦ ἐστὶν τοῦτο· καὶ ἐσκληρύνθη ἡ καρδία Φαραώ, καὶ οὐκ εἰσήκουσεν αὐτῶν, ἐλάλησεν κύριος.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et dixerunt malefici ad Pharaonem: Digitus Dei est hic; induratumque est cor Pharaonis, et non audivit eos sicut præceperat Dominus.

Spanish

Entonces los magos le dijeron al faraón: “¡Este es el dedo de Dios!” Pero el faraón siguió terco y no los escuchó, tal como Yehová lo había dicho.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Entonces los magos dijeron á Faraón: Dedo de Dios es este. Mas el corazón de Faraón se endureció, y no los escuchó; como Jehová lo había dicho.

English

“ This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said. The Fourth Plague: Flies

✦ What the text says

Summary

The Egyptian magicians tell Pharaoh that the plague they cannot reproduce is "the finger of God." Despite this admission, Pharaoh's heart yechezaq ("grew strong/hard") and he did not listen to them, matching what Yehovah had earlier said would happen.

Key words

chartumim ("magicians", H2748) — masculine plural noun with the definite article ha (H9009), identifying the specific group of Egyptian ritual specialists who had been competing with Moses and Aaron.
'etsba' ("finger of", H0676) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to what follows (Elohim) to form the phrase "finger of God"; it cannot stand alone grammatically.
Elohim ("God", H0430) — grammatically plural noun functioning here with singular meaning, completing the construct chain begun by 'etsba'.
yechezaq ("it was strong", H2388) — qal (simple, non-passive) verb form; the subject lev ("heart of", H3820) "strengthens itself" rather than being acted upon by an external force, as the qal stem is typically intransitive/active here.
shama' ("he listened", H8085) — qal perfect (completed action) negated by lo' (H3808), stating as a finished fact that listening did not occur.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the magicians' declaration to Pharaoh: 'etsba' Elohim hi' — literally "finger of God, it [is]." The construct chain 'etsba' Elohim ("finger of God") is followed by the independent pronoun hi' ("it", H1931), which functions as the predicate marker in a nominal sentence lacking a verb "to be." This produces the emphatic identification: "It is the finger of God."

The narrative then shifts with the vav-consecutive verb yechezaq ("and it grew strong"), using the qal stem where the heart (lev) of Pharaoh is the grammatical subject acting, not merely receiving an action. The Hebrew construction lev-Par'oh is itself a construct chain ("heart of Pharaoh"). The final clause uses ka'asher ("just as", H0834) to explicitly mark the outcome as matching a prior statement by Yehovah (H3068), the divine name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the heart's condition with a passive verb, esklerynthe ("was hardened"), and the Vulgate similarly uses the passive induratum est ("was hardened"), where the Hebrew qal yechezaq is not passive but presents the heart as strengthening/hardening itself.

The LXX text as given lacks an explicit equivalent to ka'asher ("just as") before its final clause "ἐλάλησεν κύριος" ("the Lord had spoken"), presenting the statement without the comparative marker found in the Hebrew, though the sense of correspondence is implied.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.