Behind | Weighing the Heart

The image of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened has a background in Egyptian views of judgment and the afterlife. Not only the Israelites but also the Egyptians would have interpreted this as a symbol of damnation. Pharaoh’s role was to maintain social order or ma’at by hardening his heart toward Egypt’s enemies and bringing this and all other forms of chaos to rest. But the Pharaoh in Exodus has lost all control, and his own judgment weighs in the balance. Let’s listen to another way that hardening may be using the Egyptian’s mythology of judgment.