But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. The pattern holds without variation: relief, hardness, refusal. The hardening attributed to God at this stage of the narrative is the judicial confirmation of a direction Pharaoh has chosen nine times. Romans 9:18 says God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden — but the sovereignty here is not capricious. It operates within the framework of Pharaoh's own repeated choices. The God who hardened Pharaoh's heart is the same God who, in Romans 9:22, bears with great patience the objects of his wrath — patient, long-suffering, giving every opportunity before the hardening is sealed. Eight plagues in, the patience has been extraordinary. The hardening is not punishment for one refusal; it is the seal on eight.

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