One of the fundamental questions asked about G-d hardening Pharaoh’s heart is how G-d could continue to punish him if he no longer had any choice in the matter. Another, related, question is how could G-d demand that Pharaoh agree to let His people go if Pharaoh would have done just that had G-d not hardened his heart? Additionally, why did G-d take Pharaoh to task for “continuing to tread on my nation” (Sh’mos 9:17) if the only reason he was still doing so was because “G-d [had] strengthened his heart” (9:12)? How could Pharaoh be blamed for it if it really wasn’t his doing? Similarly, how could Moshe say he knew that Pharaoh “still did not fear G-d” (9:30) if it was only because G-d had hardened his heart that he hadn’t let the Children of Israel go?

According to S’fornu (Sh’mos 7:3), G-d never took away Pharaoh’s free will. Rather, G-d “strengthened his heart” so that he could withstand the beating Egypt was taking, thereby allowing his decision-making process to continue to be based on free will. Instead of being forced to give in when he really didn’t want to because of the plagues, Pharaoh was given the ability to deal with the suffering and let his decisions be based on what he really wanted to do. “There is no doubt that without the hardening of the heart Pharaoh would have sent Israel [out, but] it would not have been based on repentance and humility before G-d, regretting having rebelled – even though he recognized His greatness and goodness; rather, it would have been because he was unable to withstand the suffering of the plagues anymore.” S’fornu had explained what G-d had told Moshe would happen before he ever spoke to Pharaoh (4:21) this way: “And I will strengthen his heart, for because of his inability to tolerate the plagues there is no doubt that he would have sent the nation [out]; not because he will lower himself before G-d to do what He wants. And for this reason He strengthened His heart so that he should have the fortitude to withstand the plagues and not send them [out].” Whereas without his heart being “strengthened” Pharaoh would have had to give in, without really having a choice in the matter, G-d gave him back his free will, thereby allowing him to decide whether to listen to G-d based solely on it being the right thing to do, not because of the pressure of the plagues. As he (S’fornu) put it (7:3), “if Pharaoh would have wanted to humble himself before G-d, and to return to Him with a complete repentance, there was nothing preventing him from doing so.”

Since G-d “strengthening his heart” enabled Pharaoh to still choose, through free will, not to let the Children of Israel go, he was held responsible for “still treading on My people,” and punished for his wrong choices. (For more on S’fornu’s approach to G-d strengthening/hardening Pharaoh’s heart, as well as the purpose of the plagues, see his commentary on 3:19, 3:20, 4:23, 7:4, 9:12, 9:16, 9:29, 9:32, 9:35, 10:1-2 and 11:9.) Although this would also explain why Pharaoh was taken to task for not humbling himself before G-d (10:3), as doing so was key to Pharaoh changing his ways, S’fornu adds another element to the mix: “[Even though] there is no hope that you will repent because of the strength of any plagues, perhaps you will do so because of their length, [if they] last for a long time. Therefore it was appropriate to ask at what point will the limit of the continuing refusal be reached because of a continuing plague.” In other words, G-d was threatening Pharaoh that the next plague (locusts) would stick around until he gives in; “how long do you think you can last?” However, this doesn’t fit into the words well, nor would it explain why G-d stopped the plague if Pharaoh hadn’t really repented yet, or why G-d strengthened his heart again (10:20) if he had. A more straightforward explanation of these words, based on how S’fornu had explained things until now, is that G-d was asking Pharaoh how long it will take until he freely chooses to let the Children of Israel go because G-d told him to rather than because he can’t take the suffering anymore.

The issue with this explanation is the one we started with; why did G-d first ask him this now? If the point of these words (“how long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me”) is that he should do what G-d asks because it’s the right thing to do (not because it hurts too much to not listen to G-d), why is it asked before the eighth plague rather than shortly after G-d started “strengthening his heart”? As soon as Pharaoh was willing to give in for the wrong reasons, G-d should have told him to start giving in for the right reasons!

Although G-d had hardened Pharaoh’s heart after the sixth plague, there was no need to do the same with the hearts of his servants until before the eighth one (10:1; compare 9:34 with 10:7, see Ibn Ezra on 10:1). As S’fornu had pointed out (on some of the earlier referenced verses), one of the purposes of the plagues was for the Egyptians to repent. They held out longer than Pharaoh did, but only as far as being able to deal with the suffering (perhaps because Pharaoh was more concerned with his people’s suffering than they were). Neither Pharaoh nor his servants had repented, but it was only before the eighth plague that his servants would have given in to the pressure had G-d not hardened their hearts. It was therefore at this point, when the people also only said “no” for the wrong reason, that G-d asked how long they would continue to refuse to become humbled before Him, i.e. how long it would take until they sent out His people because He asked them to rather than because they didn’t want to endure any more suffering.