ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Exodus 8.15

Book: Exodus · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

13. And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. 14. And they gathered them together in heaps; and the land stank.

15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken.

  1. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 17. And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and there were lice upon man, and upon beast; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:13-17, ASV)
WEB

13. Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. 14. They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.

15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.

  1. Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’” 17. They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were lice on man, and on animal; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:13-17, WEB)
KJV

13. And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. 14. And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.

15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

  1. And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 17. And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:13-17, KJV)
YLT

13. and Jehovah doth according to the word of Moses, and the frogs die out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields, 14. and they heap them up together, and the land stinketh.

15. And Pharaoh seeth that there hath been a respite, and he hath hardened his heart, and hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken.

  1. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, and it hath become gnats in all the land of Egypt.' 17. And they do so, and Aaron stretcheth out his hand with his rod, and smiteth the dust of the land, and the gnats are on man and on beast; all the dust of the land hath been gnats in all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:13-17, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: the narrator of Exodus
  • Audience: Israel
  • Location: Egypt
  • Time period: the exodus generation; the date is disputed between a fifteenth- and a thirteenth-century BC exodus

Theological reading

When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them.

The clearest of the self-hardening statements, and its placement is the argument. This is Pharaoh's own act, performed after relief is granted, and it occurs in the second plague cycle, before the statements in which God is the subject become dominant.

The Hebrew verb here, kaved, is to make heavy, and the plague narrative uses three different verbs for the hardening, which some have taken as marking stages: making heavy, making strong, and making hard.

The sequence supports the reading that the divine hardening described at Exodus 9.12 and after confirms a disposition Pharaoh has repeatedly chosen. What it does not do is remove the difficulty, since the announcement at Exodus 4.21 precedes all of it. The narrative holds both and does not reconcile them.

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.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

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.