שמות, פרק ט׳, פסוק ל״ה

The end of the plague of hail brings a dramatic turning point in the struggle between Egypt and Israel. Despite the total destruction and the terror that gripped the Egyptian leader, a psychological and spiritual shift occurs that locks him into his stubbornness and changes the entire nature of the enslavement. Pharaoh returns to his natural arrogance, losing any shred of respect he previously held for Moses and Aaron [ביאור יש״ר].

This renewed stubbornness is highly surprising, as Pharaoh feared the hail more than any previous plague [אבן עזרא]. The devastation was so complete that no logical reason remained for him to stand firm [שפתי כהן]. Because of this, the primary approach among commentators is that his resolve at this stage did not come from his own willpower, but from divine intervention. God actively hardened his heart [רלב״ג]. Because Pharaoh willingly chose to be stubborn during the earlier plagues, God now gave him the strength to resist so that he would not surrender merely out of terror and a physical inability to endure the suffering. To further this, God planted a false, comforting thought in Pharaoh's mind, making him believe he would not face any more plagues [ספורנו].

Alongside Pharaoh's stubbornness, a surprising development unfolds in his attitude toward the Israelites. He begins to view them with newfound honor. Following the plague of hail, the crushing burden of forced labor is completely lifted from them, fulfilling the divine promise to rescue them from their slavery. When Pharaoh refuses to let them leave, his motivation is no longer to keep them as oppressed slaves. Instead, he now wishes to treat them with respect and retain them as inhabitants of his land [העמק דבר].

Pharaoh's refusal to surrender in the face of absolute ruin defies all natural logic. This impossible reality is the direct fulfillment of a spoken prophecy God delivered to Moses at the very beginning of their mission [חזקוני, העמק דבר]. Without any rational reason left for the Egyptian king to resist, his ongoing refusal serves as the exact realization of God's early promise that the king of Egypt would not allow them to leave [שפתי כהן, חזקוני].