Exodus 8:32

Summary

Exodus 8:32 narrates that Pharaoh made his own heart heavy once again, and consequently did not release the Israelite people. The verse closes the plague-of-flies episode with a formula marking Pharaoh's persistence in refusal.

Key words

• yakhbed ("he made heavy", H3513) — hiphil (causative) verb: the grammatical subject (Pharaoh) actively causes the heaviness of the heart, rather than merely experiencing it.
• libbo ("his heart", H3820A + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, marked by the object particle 'et (H0853), showing "heart" as the direct object of Pharaoh's causative action.
• gam ("also", H1571) — adverb signaling repetition, linking this instance to prior occurrences of the same act.
• shillach ("he let go", H7971H) — piel (intensive) perfect verb, negated by lo' (H3808): a completed action of "not sending away."
• ha'am ("the people", H5971A) — definite noun, direct object of the release that does not occur, marked again with 'et.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two clauses joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002). The first clause, vayyakhbed Par'oh et-libbo gam bapa'am hazot ("and Pharaoh made his heart heavy also at this time"), places Pharaoh as grammatical agent of a hiphil verb acting upon his own heart — the causative form indicates the subject actively produces the state of heaviness in the object (his heart), rather than the heart becoming heavy independently. The phrase gam bapa'am hazot ("also at this time") uses the adverb gam to tie this event to a series, marking repetition rather than a single occurrence.

The second clause, ve-lo shillach et-ha'am ("and he did not send away the people"), uses the piel perfect of shalach (H7971H) negated by lo'. The piel stem here carries an intensive or causative-permissive sense ("to send away, release"), and the perfect aspect presents the non-release as a completed, settled fact within the narrative sequence. Both clauses share the 'et object marker before their respective direct objects (libbo, ha'am), a marker with no independent lexical meaning but which grammatically flags the accusative in Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the first clause passively — ingravatum est cor Pharaonis ("the heart of Pharaoh was made heavy") — where the Hebrew has Pharaoh as active causative subject (yakhbed, hiphil). The LXX shifts the second clause's verb sense: it reads ouk ēthelēsen exaposteilai ("he was not willing to send away"), introducing a verb of volition (θέλω) not present in the Hebrew, which states only lo' shillach ("he did not send away") without an explicit term for willingness.