33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.

34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

I’ve already discussed this, but I’ll point out once again that in verse 34 it sounds as though Pharaoh willfully hardened his heart, rather than that the Lord did it to him. Particularly notable to me is that he “sinned” in the hardening of his heart. We typically consider a sin as requiring an intentional, coherent decision to do wrong. We say that someone who is taken by a sudden insanity is not necessarily culpable for the terrible things that they do in that state, so if God had afflicted Pharaoh with a temporary madness that hardened his heart, it seems unlikely that this verse would say that Pharaoh had “sinned.” He would not be culpable anymore.

Also, we are told in these verses that Pharaoh’s servants hardened their hearts as well. But who are these servants, and why would their hardness of heart be relevant to the story? Based on some upcoming references to the same servants, it seems most likely that these were Pharaoh’s advisors and officers. Thus, as they similarly hardened their hearts, they were encouraging and bolstering Pharaoh in his defiance. If it were otherwise, then his continued provocation of the Lord might have put him in danger of rebellion or even assassination!

In some later verses Pharaoh will eventually will lose the support of his servants, but even then he will not surrender to their arguments or be subdued by them. That would have been a surrender of man to man, but the story of Pharaoh was to be one of surrender to God, and God alone!