Passage

Exodus 4.21

Book: Exodus · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

19. And Jehovah said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead that sought thy life. 20. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21. And Jehovah said unto Moses, When thou goest back into Egypt, see that thou do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in thy hand: but I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.

And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, my first-born: 23. and I have said unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me; and thou hast refused to let him go: behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born. (Exodus 4:19-23, ASV)

WEB

19. Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.” 20. Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.

21. Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23. and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’” (Exodus 4:19-23, WEB)

KJV

19. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life. 20. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21. And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 23. And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. (Exodus 4:19-23, KJV)

YLT

19. And Jehovah saith unto Moses in Midian, 'Go, turn back to Egypt, for all the men have died who seek thy life;' 20. and Moses taketh his wife, and his sons, and causeth them to ride on the ass, and turneth back to the land of Egypt, and Moses taketh the rod of God in his hand.

21. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'In thy going to turn back to Egypt, see, all the wonders which I have put in thy hand, that thou hast done them before Pharaoh, and I, I strengthen his heart, and he doth not send the people away;

and thou hast said unto Pharaoh, Thus said Jehovah, My son, My first-born [is] Israel, 23. and I say unto thee, Send away My son, and he doth serve Me; and, thou dost refuse to send him away, lo, I am slaying thy son, thy first-born.' (Exodus 4:19-23, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the LORD, speaking to Moses
Audience: Moses, before the return to Egypt
Location: Midian, on the way to Egypt
Time period: the exodus generation; the date is disputed between a fifteenth- and a thirteenth-century BC exodus

Theological reading

I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

The first of the hardening statements, and it is God who is named as the agent. The theme runs through the plague narrative and is the principal Old Testament text for the problem of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

The distribution matters and is often misreported. Across the cycle the hardening is attributed to God about ten times, to Pharaoh about ten times, and stated passively about the same number. The first several occurrences in the narrative sequence are Pharaoh hardening his own heart, and the statements with God as subject predominate later. See Exodus 8.15 for the self-hardening and Exodus 9.12 for the turn.

That ordering supports a reading in which divine hardening confirms a settled disposition rather than creating it, which is also how Paul handles the material at Romans 9. The reading does not dissolve the difficulty, and pretending otherwise is not honest use.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H2388 - chazaq, chazaq, Strong's H2388
H3820 - lev, lev, Strong's H3820
H7725 - shuv, shuv, Strong's H7725
H6213 - asah, asah, Strong's H6213
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.