Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 7:3/אבן עזרא על שמות ז׳:ג׳
אואני אקשה. יש לשאול אם ד' הקשה את לבו מה פשעו מה חטאתו, והתשובה, כי השם נתן חכמה לאדם ונטע בלבו שכל לקבל כח עליון, להוסיף על טובתו, או לחסר מרעתו וזה אפרש בפ' כי תשא ובפסוק מי יתן והיה לבבם זה (דבר' ה כו), והנה טעם אקשה את לבו למען רבות מופתי, ור' ישועה אמר, כי טעם אקשה את לבו לסבול את המכות ולא דבר נכונה:
1AND I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH’S HEART. The question arises: “If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart what was his transgression and what was his sin?”15, our verse states that God will harden Pharaoh’s heart and punish him for not mending his ways; i.e., I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and punish him for hardening his heart by multiplying “My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” The answer is: God granted wisdom to man and implanted in his heart the intelligence to receive power from on high to add to his good16 or to diminish his evil.17 I will explain this in the Torah portion Ki Tissa18 and when I comment on the verse Oh that they had such a heart as this alway (Deut. 5:26). Now the meaning of our verse is: I will harden his heart in order to multiply My signs and My wonders.19 Rabbi Joshua says that its meaning is: I will harden his heart so that he will be able to bear the plagues.20 However, he spoke incorrectly.21 thus does not mean I will give Pharaoh a strong heart so that he can bear up under the pressure of the plagues, but rather that I will, so to speak, dull his brain so that he does not develop his intellectual capacity.