Bible Strands
Exodus 9:2
But if you continue to restrain them and refuse to let them go,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Pharaoh through Moses during the ongoing plague sequence, immediately after commanding the release of the Israelites for worship.
The words — The Hebrew מָאֵ֥ן (ma'En) and מַחֲזִ֥יק (machazik) literally describe active refusal and physical restraint, capturing Pharaoh's deliberate holding back of the people.
The thread — This conditional structure appears in Exodus 8:2, Exodus 4:23, and Exodus 10:4, where each refusal to release triggers a specified divine judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that continued defiance directly precedes escalated consequences, requiring the reader to acknowledge that obedience halts judgment while stubbornness guarantees it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
Cross-references
- Exodus 8:2 But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.
- Exodus 4:23 and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”
- Exodus 10:4 But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.
- Leviticus 26:14 If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,
- Leviticus 26:23 And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,
- Leviticus 26:27 But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,
- Psalms 7:11 God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day.
- Psalms 68:21 Surely God will crush the heads of His enemies, the hairy crowns of those who persist in guilty ways.
- Isaiah 1:20 But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
- Romans 2:8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.