Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 4:21

21 And the LORD said unto Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand : but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go.

(i. e.) In thy power of commission, to be done by thy hand and the rod in it.

That he shall be unmerciful to all the groans and pressures of the Israelites, inexorable to the requests of Moses unmoveable and incorrigible by all my words and works. But God doth not properly and positively make mens hearts hard, but onely privatively, either by denying to them or withdrawing from them that grace, which alone, can make men soft and flexible and pliable to the Divine will, as the Sun hardens the Clay by drawing out of it that moisture which made it soft; or by exposing them to those Temptations of the World or the Devil which meeting with a corrupt heart are apt to harden it.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 3. and 9. 12. and 10. 1. and 14. 8. Deut. 2. 30. Isa. 63. 17. John 12. 40. Rom. 9. 17.