ספר שמות

Exodus 7,3-4. “but I will harden the heart ‎of Pharaoh, etc.” “Pharaoh will not listen to ‎you.” The Or Hachayim, in his ‎commentary on this line questions why G’d had to ‎repeat this statement in verse 4 when He had already ‎said in verse 3 that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart? ‎In order to answer this problem satisfactorily it is ‎important to examine the plague of frogs. Before ‎decreeing this plague Moses had said to Pharaoh that ‎if he were to refuse to let the Israelites go, G’d would ‎smite his entire country with a plague of frogs which ‎would invade even the most private parts of his ‎bedroom, including the houses of all his servants. ‎‎(Exodus 26-28) After the plague did strike and Pharaoh ‎asked Moses to bring it to an end, Moses tells him that ‎he will do so at a time of Pharaoh’s choosing, so that ‎he would learn that there is no G’d like the G’d of the ‎Israelites. (8,5) Later on when the wild beasts have ‎been let loose in urban areas, Moses adds that Pharaoh ‎should now learn that G’d’s domain is also the dry land ‎of the earth. (8,18) The reason why two different ‎domains of G’d’s power are mentioned on those two ‎occasions is that two different types of miracles were ‎involved. One basic miracle applying to all the plagues ‎was to demonstrate G’d’s power in His universe; the ‎other miracle was that G’d could, if He wished, ‎dominate man’s willpower so that he would foolishly ‎self destruct in spite of the evidence before his eyes ‎how his obstinacy would lead to his and his people’s ‎ruin.‎