296 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



from his own perverse and stubborn disposition. 

 I have likewise been assured by some very 

 learned men, that according to the Hebrew 

 idiom, verbs "active often signify permission; 

 and in these verses it is much more consonant 

 to our ideas of divine justice so to understand 

 the expression : that is, that God permitted 

 Pharaoh to proceed in his own proud and wicked 

 career, insensible to the threatened judgments, 

 which he had already despised. 



" But even supposing that the verb is to be 

 taken in the active sense, it is a remarkable 

 fact, that the event was constantly suspended 

 in order that Pharaoh might have it in his 

 power to relent and to ' set his heart,' that is, to 

 humble and change it, and become obedient to 

 the word of the Lord ; for after five plagues had 

 already been wrought upon him, and that he 

 still persisted, even then his punishment was 

 withheld ; in order to let him repent, if he would. 

 Besides which, the delay afforded a far more 

 conspicuous testimony of God's patience, and 

 gave greater dignity to his wrath. 



" Pharaoh's final obduracy therefore was not 

 caused by God's will, but was the effect of 

 his own previous obstinacy; that he hardened 

 his heart was his sin ; that the Lord permitted 

 him to harden it, was his punishment.'" 



My uncle said also that a Hebrew scholar 

 told him that the word which is translated by the 



