Exodus 7:23

Exo 7:23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

Ver. 23. Neither did he set his heart.] But to his "iron sinews" he added "brows of brass." {Isa 48:4} To his natural and hereditary hardness, adventitious and habitual.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, he set not his heart at all thereunto.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(23) Neither did he set his heart to this also.—Heb., Neither did he set his heart (i.e., pay attention) even to this. Pharaoh did not lay even this to heart. He passed it over as a slight matter, unworthy of much thought, and “turned, and went into his house. “Probably care was taken to keep him constantly supplied with the well water, which, however brackish, would be sufficient for his customary ablutions. He drank, no doubt, a more generous liquid.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. turned and went] viz. after his visit to the Nile, v. 15.

set his heart … to this] i.e. pay attention to it: a Heb. idiom (like νοῦν προσέχειν, animum attendere); so Exo 2Sa_13:20 Heb. al.

The plague is an intensification of a natural phaenomenon of annual occurrence in Egypt. ‘Still, each year, the water of the river becomes like blood at the time of the inundation. When the Nile first begins to rise, towards the end of June, the red marl brought from the mountains of Abyssinia stains it to a dark colour, which glistens like blood in the light of the setting sun’ (Sayce, EHH., p. 168, writing with personal knowledge of the country). Other observers speak similarly1[119]. The natives call it then the ‘Red Nile.’ The reddish colour continues more or less till the waters begin to abate in October. The water, while it is red, is not unwholesome. Shortly, however, before the redness begins, the Nile (called then the ‘Green Nile’) generally for a few days rises slightly, and becomes green (from decaying vegetable matter brought down from the equatorial swamps), and then it is unwholesome2[120].

[119] e.g. Osburn, Monum. Hist. of Egypt (1851), i. 11 f. (when the rays of the rising sun fell upon the Nile, it had the appearance of a ‘river of blood’; and the Arabs came to tell him that it was the ‘Red Nile’).

[120] See further on the annual inundation of the Nile,—which is due to the waters of the Atbara and the ‘Blue Nile’ being swollen by the heavy spring and summer rains in the Abyssinian highlands, and the melting of the mountain snow, and which give the Delta its fertility,—R. Pococke, Descr. of the East (1743), i. 199 f.; Rawlinson, Hist. of Eg. (1881), i. 19–25; Maspero, Dawn of Civil. pp. 22–26; DB. iii. 551, 889; W. M. Müller in EB. Egypt, § 7, and Nile; Bädeker, Egypt6 (1908), p. xlv f.

As Dillm. says, however, though the recollection of an extraordinary intensification of a genuine Egyptian phaenomenon is the foundation of the narrative, it is not the actual reddening of the Nile at the time of the inundation which the narrative describes, not only because there would be nothing surprising in what was an annual occurrence, but also because of the seven days’ limit of time in v. 25, and because the water of the ‘Red Nile’ is wholesome and drinkable: but the natural local phaenomenon is dissociated from its natural conditions, and transformed into something transcending all experience, by the circumstances under which it is produced, and by the consequences attending it,—the water (including in P even that in domestic vessels) becoming undrinkable, and the fish dying.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Pharaoh turned, and went into his house,.... Turned away from Moses and Aaron, and turned back from the river to which he came, and went to his palace in the city; it being perhaps now about dinner time, when all before related had passed:

neither did he set his heart to this also: had no regard to this miracle of turning the waters into blood, as well as he had none to the rod being turned into a serpent, and devouring the rods of the magicians; he neither considered the one nor the other, or seriously and closely thought of this, any more than of the other.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He did not seriously consider it, nor the causes or cure of this plague, and was not much affected with it, because he saw this fact exceeded not the power of his magicians.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Pharaoh turnedi.e. "returned quitted the river-hank, satisfied with what the magicians had done, and went back to the palace. Neither did he set his heart to this also. A better translation is that of Booth-royd did he lay even this to heart." In the expression "even this" there is an allusion to the previous neglect of the first sign (ver. 13).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All the Egyptians

The word "all" here is a generalization that means "many." AT: "Many of the Egyptians" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

translationWords

Pharaoh

house

Egypt

Yahweh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

גם לזאת [NEITHER DID HE SET HIS HEART] TO THIS ALSO — to the wonder of the staff which was changed into a serpent and also not to that of the blood.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

NEITHER DID HE SET HIS HEART TO THIS ALSO. I.e., to the wonder of the rod turning into a serpent, nor to that of the waters turning into blood. [Thus the language of Rashi.] A more correct interpretation would appear to be that to this also means “to this also which was indeed a plague,” [as distinguished from the wonder of the rod turning into a serpent, which was not a plague at all], and he should have feared lest the power of G-d be upon him from now on.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.