Exodus 8

Swift judgment and punishment mark the action in Exodus 8. Plagues II, III, and IV fall in rapid succession; Pharaoh's heart progressively hardens, and God's ultimate victory through Moses and Aaron begins to appear:

1. in the recognition by Pharaoh of Moses and Aaron as God's spokesmen, not as the malcontent slaves that he at first took them to be,
   
2. in Pharaoh's growing acquaintance with Jehovah whom he at first professed not to know, and
   
3. in the first of a series of compromises in which Pharaoh sought to avoid the inevitable.