“And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. This time I have sinned, he said to them. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pharaoh makes his first confession — I have sinned. The Hebrew chata'ti is the standard word for transgression, the same word used in Psalm 51:4 where David confesses: against you, you only, have I sinned. Pharaoh's confession uses the right vocabulary. He acknowledges God's righteousness and his own guilt. But the next verses will show that the confession is pragmatic rather than genuine — produced by hailstones, not by conviction. Matthew 7:22–23 warns of those who call Lord, Lord but are not known by Him — the form of acknowledgment without the substance of transformation. Pharaoh has the words but not the heart. The plagues have not yet produced what only grace can produce: genuine repentance.
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