¹⁹ He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.^(A)

¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years^(A) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved^(B) and mistreated there.

¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[a](A) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(B)

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(C) “Then why does God still blame us?^(D) For who is able to resist his will?”^(E)

³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the Lord^(A) your God had made his spirit stubborn^(B) and his heart obstinate^(C) in order to give him into your hands,^(D) as he has now done.

The Plague of Locusts

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart^(A) and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs^(B) of mine among them

¹⁶ But I have raised you up^[a] for this very purpose,^(A) that I might show you my power^(B) and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders^(A) I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart^(B) so that he will not let the people go.^(C)

²³ During that long period,^(A) the king of Egypt died.^(B) The Israelites groaned in their slavery^(C) and cried out, and their cry^(D) for help because of their slavery went up to God.