Keluaran 9:7

9:7 Pharaoh sent representatives to investigate, ¹  and indeed, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ²  and he did not release the people.

Keluaran 9:27

9:27 So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! ³  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. ⁴ 

[9:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Pharaoh sent.” The phrase “representatives to investigate” is implied in the context.

[9:7]  ² tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word כָּבֵד (kaved; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[9:27]  ³ sn Pharaoh now is struck by the judgment and acknowledges that he is at fault. But the context shows that this penitence was short-lived. What exactly he meant by this confession is uncertain. On the surface his words seem to represent a recognition that he was in the wrong and Yahweh right.

[9:27]  ⁴ tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) can mean “ungodly, wicked, guilty, criminal.” Pharaoh here is saying that Yahweh is right, and the Egyptians are not – so they are at fault, guilty. S. R. Driver says the words are used in their forensic sense (in the right or wrong standing legally) and not in the ethical sense of morally right and wrong (Exodus, 75).