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Exodus 10 · a question people ask

When Pharaoh said, "I have sinned," did he mean it?

In the text

The text doesn't say what was in his heart this time. It records his words: "I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore please forgive my sin again, and pray to the LORD your God, that he may also take away from me this death" (10:16-17). It had happened before. After the hail he said, "I have sinned this time" (9:27); Moses answered, "I know that you don’t yet fear the LORD God" (9:30); and when the hail stopped, "he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart" (9:34). This time, once the locusts were gone, "the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go" (10:20).

The verses

“Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore please forgive my sin again, and pray to the LORD your God, that he may also take away from me this death.” Moses went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to the LORD. The LORD sent an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go.”
Exodus 10:16-20 · World English Bible
“Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”
Exodus 9:27 · World English Bible
“But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear the LORD God.””
Exodus 9:30 · World English Bible
“When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders had ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”
Exodus 9:34 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Exodus 10

Exodus 10: Light in their dwellings

The signs were for Israel's grandchildren as well as for Pharaoh: "that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son’s son" (10:2). Pharaoh bargained over who could go; Moses said, "Not a hoof shall be left behind." And while Egypt sat in a darkness that could be felt, "all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings."

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions