What can we learn from Pharaoh’s heart?

Which character in the Bible does the Torah tell us MOST about his or her emotional state?

Answer: Pharaoh. There are 17 references to his emotional state. The Torah references Pharaoh’s “lev,” his heart.

What Can We Learn from Pharaoh’s Heart

Which character in the Torah does the text describe most often in emotional terms? Surprisingly, it is Pharaoh. Again and again, the Exodus narrative returns to his lev—his heart. Not as a passing detail, but as the engine of the story itself. There are seventeen explicit references to Pharaoh’s heart, more than almost any other figure. The Torah is signaling something essential: Pharaoh’s struggle is not merely political or historical. It is human.

The Exodus is a story of release. For the Israelites, it is freedom and future. For Pharaoh, it is loss—of power, certainty, and identity. His empire was built on slavery; to let the people go was to dismantle the world he knew. In that sense, Pharaoh himself was enslaved—bound to the past, unable to imagine a future that looked different from what had always been.

The Torah’s language traces the psychology of resistance. Early on, Pharaoh hardens his own heart. He refuses, again and again, to change course. Only later does the text say that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. This is not sudden coercion; it is consequence. Choice becomes habit. Habit becomes character. A heart that repeatedly says “no” eventually loses its flexibility.

This pattern is deeply familiar. We often resist change not because we lack information, but because we are attached—to power, to identity, to narratives that justify who we have been. Pharaoh was not defending only an economy; he was defending a worldview in which nothing essential could change. That attachment made it impossible for him to see a different reality even as it unfolded before him.

Seen this way, God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart reflects a sobering truth about human freedom. A person can become so committed to resisting moral change that turning back is no longer accessible. The heart calcifies. What once was choice becomes fate.

Pharaoh’s story is therefore not only ancient history; it is a warning. When we cling to the past—roles, power, certainty—we risk becoming trapped by it. Freedom requires release, not only from external constraints, but from internal ones. The Exodus challenges us to confront our own Pharaoh moments, the places where fear of loss hardens our hearts.

True liberation begins when we are willing to let go.

Torah references for the Pharaoh

Exodus 4:21, p. 120 JPS

• “I, however, will stiffen his heart so that he will not let the people go”

Exodus 7:3, p. 124 JPS

• “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt”

Exodus 7:14, p. 125 JPS

• “Yet Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them”

Exodus 7:22, p. 126 JPS

• “Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them”

Exodus 8:11, p. 127 JPS

• “But when Pharaoh saw that ere was relief, he became stubborn and would not heed them, as the Lord had spoken”

Exodus 8:15, p. 127-128 JPS

• “But Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not heed them, as the Lord had spoken”

Exodus 8:28, p. 129 JPS

• “But Pharaoh became stubborn this time also, and would not let the people go”

Exodus 9:7, p. 129 JPS

• “Yet Pharaoh remained stubborn, and he would not let the people go”

Exodus 9:12, p. 130 JPS

• “But the Lord stiffened the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not heed them”

Exodus 9:34, p. 131 JPS

• “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways, as did his courtiers”

Exodus 9:35, p. 131 JPS

• “So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go”

Exodus 10:1, p. 131 JPS

• “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart”

Exodus 10:20, p. 133 JPS

• “But the Lord stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go”

Exodus 10:27, p. 134 JPS

• “But the Lord stiffened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not agree to let them go”

Exodus 11:10, p. 135 JPS

• “Moses and Aaron had performed all of these marvels before Pharaoh, but the Lord stiffened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not let the Israelites go from his land.”

Exodus 14:4, p. 141 JPS

• “Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart”

Exodus 14:5, p. 141 JPS

• “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his courtiers had a change of heart about the people”