For the Lord hardened their hearts and caused them to fight the Israelites.
What does that mean when it says that*
It sort of means he had them do what was in their hearts. Like he squeezed all their anger toward them in their hearts out, so they would go ahead and do what they would do. Kind of like squeezing a wet sponge, the harder you squeeze it together, the harder it gets, and squeezes out the water in the process.
In Biblical Hebrew, "soft heart" means fear, so "hard heart" probably means the opposite - lack of fear. Naturally the egyptians should be afraid because of the plagues, and release the Israelis; but The Lord made their hearts hard so they won't be afraid, and do what they really wanted to.
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