What Does Exodus 9:35 Mean?

So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses. Chapter 9 closes with the same formula as every previous plague's conclusion: Pharaoh's hardened heart, continued refusal, and the narrator's "just as the LORD had spoken through Moses." The concluding formula is the chapter's last word, and as always it points the reader's attention from Pharaoh's hardening to YHWH's prior word. The hardened heart and the continued refusal were predicted before the first plague began; each chapter's closing confirms that the divine word is proving accurate, plague by plague.

The "just as the LORD had spoken through Moses" in verse 35 is slightly different from the earlier "as the LORD had said" formulas: the addition of "through Moses" emphasizes the mediated nature of the divine word. YHWH spoke, but he spoke through Moses. The plague sequence has demonstrated YHWH's power; it has simultaneously demonstrated Moses' role as the authoritative conduit through whom YHWH's word comes. The narrative's closing formula honors both: the word is YHWH's, but it came through Moses. Both the divine sovereignty and the human prophetic mediation are affirmed in the chapter's final phrase.

Chapter 9 covers three plagues (livestock, boils, hail), the full elimination of the Egyptian magicians from the confrontation, the first formal acknowledgment of YHWH's existence within the Egyptian court (the God-fearers of verse 20), YHWH's fullest self-explanation of the plague sequence's purpose (verses 14-17, quoted in Romans 9:17), and Pharaoh's fullest and most quickly retracted confession ("I have sinned; the LORD is in the right").

All of this is summarized in the chapter's final verse as proceeding "just as the LORD had spoken through Moses": precisely as predicted, executed through the prophetic channel, for the purpose of demonstrating YHWH's power to all the earth.