Exodus 9:35

Summary

The verse closes the plague narrative cycle by stating that Pharaoh's heart grew strong (or hardened) and that he did not release the Israelites. It explicitly ties this outcome to a prior divine statement, noting that events unfolded "as Yehovah had spoken through Moses."

Key words

• yechezaq ("it was strong", H2388) — qal wayyiqtol form, narrating a completed event in sequence; the verb root relates to firmness/strength, describing Pharaoh's heart as having become hardened/strengthened.
• lev ("heart of", H3820) — masculine singular construct, grammatically bound to Par'oh, forming the subject "the heart of Pharaoh."
• shillach ("he let go", H7971) — piel perfect, an intensive stem indicating a decisive, completed act of releasing (or in this case, its negation).
• ka'asher ("just as", H0834) — relative particle combined with the preposition ka ("just"), introducing a comparative clause that links Pharaoh's action to an earlier divine statement.
• be-yad ("by the hand of", H3027) — construct noun with prefixed preposition, an idiom expressing agency, here indicating Moses as the means through which Yehovah's word was delivered.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has three linked clauses joined by the narrative vav: first, "and the heart of Pharaoh grew strong" (vayyechezaq lev Par'oh); second, "and he did not send away the sons of Israel" (ve-lo shillach et-benei Yisra'el); third, a comparative clause "just as Yehovah had spoken by the hand of Moses" (ka'asher dibber Yehovah be-yad Mosheh). The subject of the first clause is lev Par'oh ("heart of Pharaoh"), a construct phrase making "heart" the grammatical actor rather than Pharaoh himself directly — the strengthening happens to his heart as a distinct element of description.

The verb shillach appears in the piel perfect, the same intensive stem used elsewhere in Exodus for Pharaoh's acts of releasing or refusing to release Israel; here it is negated by lo, producing "he did not let go." The final clause uses ka'asher to frame the entire event as fulfillment of a prior divine word, and be-yad Mosheh specifies the channel of transmission — literally "by the hand of Moses" — indicating agency without naming what exactly was said, only that events matched it.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) expands the first clause considerably: "et ingravatum est cor ejus, et servorum illius, et induratum nimis" ("and his heart was made heavy, and [that] of his servants, and hardened exceedingly"). This adds "servorum illius" (his servants) and an intensifying "nimis" (exceedingly), elements absent from both the Hebrew vayyechezaq lev Par'oh and the LXX's ἐσκληρύνθη ἡ καρδία Φαραώ ("the heart of Pharaoh was hardened"). The Hebrew and LXX both restrict the hardening to Pharaoh's heart alone, with no mention of servants or intensifying adverbs.