Keluaran 9:12

9:12 But the Lord hardened ¹  Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted to Moses.

Keluaran 12:2

12:2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year. ² 

[9:12]  ¹ tn This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq); see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53.

[12:2]  ² sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other.