Exodus 7:13
ESV
Still Pharaoh 's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
NIV
Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
NASB
Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
CSB
However, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
NLT
Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the Lord had predicted.
KJV
And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
NKJV
And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said.
What does Exodus 7:13 mean?
Even if Pharaoh thought that his magicians really duplicated God's miracle (Exodus 7:10–11), he should have taken note that God's serpent swallowed the serpents of Egypt (Exodus 7:12). Pharaohs wore cobras as symbols of their authority—the Lord had symbolically declared His rule superior to that of Egypt's king. But Pharaoh is spiritually stubborn. He has already responded to Moses and Aaron with spite (Exodus 5:6–9). This is as God expected (Exodus 3:19–20; 7:4).God said that He would make Pharaoh obstinate (Exodus 4:21) in order to amplify the message of the plagues on Egypt. However, this does not mean that Pharaoh only refused because the Lord forcibly changed his mind. Pharaoh's heart is said to be hard, or self-hardened, many times (Exodus 7:14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7) before the first time God explicitly acts to make the king stubborn (Exodus 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 14:4, 8). Even after those moments, Pharaoh still makes his own choice to be headstrong (Exodus 9:34–35). After resisting and resisting (Proverbs 29:1), the Egyptian king crosses a point of no return, after which the Lord turns him into an illustration of judgment.
What comes next is the first of the ten catastrophic plagues on Egypt: turning water into blood (Exodus 7:14–25).
