Some Thoughts on an Exodus Theme

Part 4e: QASHAH

We have been discussing a lietmotif from the Exodus story: the hard heart. In previous articles, we addressed three fundamental questions:

1.    What is being “hardened” when the Bible speaks of the “heart”?
2.    What does it mean for the heart to be “hardened”?
3.    And who does the hardening?

Questions #1 and #3 were more straightforward and we answered them in earlier posts. The answer to #2, however, is a little more nuanced. To unpack the nuances, we began with three verses:

The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will HARDEN HIS HEART so that he will not let the people go.

Exodus 4:21

But I will HARDEN PHARAOH’S HEART, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,

Exodus 7:3

Now the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I HAVE HARDENED HIS HEART and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him…

Exodus 10:1

In each of these verses, a different Hebrew word lies behind the English word “hard”: CHAZAQ, KABED, and QASHAH. This time, in our concluding post in the series, we’re exploring the final qord: QASHAH.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

As a verb, QASHAH occurs 28 times in the Hebrew Bible, including twice in Exodus. As the adjective QASHEH, you can find it 36 times, including seven times in Exodus. Interestingly, out of those appearances in the Exodus narrative, only once is it used in connection with Pharaoh’s hard heart: Exodus 7:3.

And I WILL HARDEN Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

All of the other uses in Exodus, the word gets translated differently, as we explained here and here. Let’s unpack this.

Hard Men

If you were British, you’d understand the idiom of “hard men”. The English use it of particularly tough football players. The very frightening Vinnie Jones is a prime example,
one who was so hard that he translated this to films as an actor, often cast as a tough guy. You might describe Vinnie as QASHAH.

QASHAH means “to be hard, severe, or fierce”. It can also mean “to be cruel” or “to make grievous”. Here is its first use:

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had HARD labor. ¹⁷Now it came to pass, when she was in HARD labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.”

Genesis 35:16-17

Here is a verse from 1 Samuel 5:7, when the Philistines took the Ark from Israel?

And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand IS HARSH toward us and Dagon our god.”

Finally, here’s an example from Deuteronomy 1:17, when Moses recounts how he had appointed 70 elders to be judges.

Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case TOO HARD for you, and I will hear it.’

QASHAH means “to be difficult, severe, hard, fierce”. Of the three, it is the one closest to our usual understanding of Pharaoh’s “hard heart”: subborn. In fact, you can read that rendering in several places.

And testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, ‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’ And they shrugged their shoulders, STIFFENED their necks, and would not hear.

Nehemiah 9:29

Happy is the man who is always reverent,
But he who HARDENS his heart will fall into calamity.

Proverbs 28:14

“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness

Psalm 95:8

Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but STIFFENED their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

Jeremiah 7:26

But of the three words that get translated as “hard”, QASHAH is the least frequently used in connection with Pharaoh’s heart. What do you think we should do with that?

My contention is that, perhaps, God wants to say more than simply Pharaoh was stubborn. The Text clearly demonstrates there is more to it than meets our Kansas eye. If we step through that door into Oz, a whole new world of understanding unfolds. The story can reveal more colors than we ever expected.

So, let’s be careful with hasty and easy conclusions. As Inigo reminds us, the words may
mean something different than we think.

Some Thoughts on an Exodus Theme

Part 4d: KABED

We’ve been discussing the leitmotif of the hard heart as it has been told in the Exodus story. In doing this, we are answering three fundamental questions:

1. What is being “hardened” when the Bible speaks of the “heart”?

2. What does it mean for the heart to be “hardened”?

3. And who does the hardening?

The first and the third questions have been answered (see here and here). We’re now in the midst of sorting out the second question: what does “harden” mean? To do this, we’ve been looking at the English phrase “hard heart” in its original Hebrew to explore the connotations of the phrase.

An analogy we’ve presented has been borrowed from the classic dystopian scifi film, “The Matrix”. In the film, Neo is offered the choice: take the Blue Pill and stay blissfully ignorant of the Truth or take the Red Pill and see “how deep the rabbit hole goes”.

The rabbit hole begins with three verses from Exodus where the phrase appears.

Exodus 4:21

But I will HARDEN PHARAOH’S HEART, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,

Exodus 7:3

Now the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I HAVE HARDENED HIS HEART and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him…

Exodus 10:1

In each of these verses, a different Hebrew word lies behind the English word “hard”: CHAZAQ, KABED, and QASHAH. In the previous article, we unpacked CHAZAQ. In this one, we’re taking a look at KABED.

Stay alert. This Red Pill is Heavy

The next verb in frequency of occurrence (9x) is the one from Exodus 10:1 above. That word is KABED (כָּבַד). It can be found 115 times in the Hebrew Bible. Here’s an example outside of Exodus, from Genesis 13:2:

Abram had become very WEALTHY in livestock and in silver and gold.

What? Wealthy? So, God made Pharaoh’s heart wealthy, not hard? Wait. There’s more.

¹⁸ And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. ¹⁹ So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was MORE HONORABLE than all the household of his father.

Genesis 34:18-19

What in the world? We have KABED translated as “wealthy”. Then we have it as “honorable”? Confused? The next example will not clear things up.

Let MORE WORK be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.

Exodus 5:9

KABED (כָּבַד) usually translates as “to be heavy or weighty”. As a verb, it occurs 115 times in the Hebrew Bible. As an adjective, it’s found 43 times. It’s the root word for the noun KABOWD (כָּבוֹד), which most often gets translated as “glory”, which occurs 200 times in the Text.

So you shall tell my father of all MY GLORY in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.

Genesis 45:13

The sight of THE GLORY of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

Exodus 24:17

And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of HIS GLORY!”

Isaiah 6:3

Then she named the child ICHABOD, saying, “THE GLORY has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

1 Samuel 4:21

In Hebrew, the name Ichabod is a compound word: IY (which means “not”) and KABOWD (which means “glory). In Hebrew, it read like this: כָבוֹד֙ אִֽי.

A final example from Exodus will add to the confusion because the verse also includes CHAZAQ:

And I will HARDEN (CHAZAQ) Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I WILL GAIN GLORY (KABED) for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.’ So the Israelites did this.

KABED gets translated as “hard” in no other place except these fe verses in Exodus. I understand how “heavy” or “weighty” leads to “glory” because glory is heavy. It is significant. But why do English translators render it as “hard” in these Exodus verses? What is going on with this word?

Being heavy or weighty seems like it should be a good thing, doesn’t it? How is it that we infer negative connotations to Pharaoh’s heart being KABED? Are you confused? I may be unable to clear up the confusion, but we can find some rich meaning in the Text.

So, Pharaoh’s heart became heavy?

This is where the Eqyptian context matters. In Egyptian mythology, after death each person’s life was weighed on a scale to determine whether they were worthy of the afterlife. This principle is named for the goddess MAAT in ancient Egyptian religion. Their heart is weighed on a scale against Maat’s feather. If the heart is heavier than the feather, the deceased is devoured by a monster and ceases to exist.

To say that Pharaoh’s heart is KABED is to accuse him of grave sin in the Egyptian worldview. The heart is not hard, but rather heavy…and therefore, Pharaoh is unworthy.

So, we have pointed out that the Exodus story portrays Pharaoh with a strong heart. It portrays him with a heavy (and therefore unworthy) heart. What about the third Hebrew word. QASHAH? Stay tuned…

Words from the Second Thief

Tuesday, June 17, 2025