The plague of boils was a visitation of physical suffering, perhaps somewhat adapted to make a fretful man irritable. The narrative notes the circumstance that the magicians were completely broken down by this plague: “They could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians” [not upon the Israelites]. As to Pharaoh, all human help fails him; every man among his people seems to quail and give up the contest; yet his proud heart is only the more maddened and the more determined! It is said, “The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he hearkened not unto them;” but such mad infatuation is wont to appear in depraved human souls without any miraculous infliction of hardness from the hand of God. There is not the least occasion to assume any other influences than those of a proud, maddened human heart, working out its own obstinate will against God. The hail with attendant thunder and lightning (next in order) were fearfully appalling. All Egyptian hearts seemed to quiver with terror under this infliction. Pharaoh is brought (shall we say) to his knees: he sends hastily for Moses and Aaron and says to them: “I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked.” Truly this seems hopeful. For the first time he appears penitent. “Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go and ye shall stay no longer.”――――This seems to be a final victory over the proud heart and the long time inflexible will of Pharaoh. He confesses sin; he begs again for prayer; he promises to yield to God’s entire demand and let the people go. Consequently the plague was removed. “And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder were ceased, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”――――Alas for man’s perverse and false nature――his proud heart and his lying lips! How readily he relapses back into his old and much-loved sin and becomes more hardened than ever! The judgments of God extort confessions and tears and prayers; but God’s mercies let off this pressure and leave the guilty soul to fly back to its old sins again. So it was with Pharaoh. God’s mercies, abused, worked out his ruin. But it were simply monstrous to say that this showing of mercy is on God’s part a moral wrong and that it throws over upon him the moral responsibility of hardening the sinner’s heart. Yet it was precisely in this way――perhaps more really and potently than in any other――that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.