Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?

Different Hebrew descriptions are used across the plagues, including making firm, making heavy, and making hard. The narrative also alternates between Pharaoh's actions and God's judgment.

The text does not reduce Pharaoh to a passive victim. Pharaoh repeatedly resists, refuses, and hardens his own heart, while God confirms his judgment and displays his power.

Christian traditions explain the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility in different ways. Responsible interpretation should represent those differences without pretending the passage answers every later debate in the same vocabulary.