second time. So Pharaoh's heart was made like a liver, and he did not receive the words of God. Similarly, Rabbi Phinehas, the priest, son of Rabbi Hama, interpreted God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart in light of , "But they who are godless in heart lay up anger; they cry not for help when He binds them." Rabbi Phinehas taught that if the godless, for whose repentance God waits, do not do so, then later on, even when they do think of it, God distracts their hearts from penitence. Rabbi Phinehas interpreted the words of , "And they who are godless in heart," to teach that those who begin by being godless in heart end up bringing upon themselves God's anger. And Rabbi Phinehas interpreted the words of , "They cry not for help when He binds them," to teach that though the godless wish later to return to God and to pray to God, they are no longer able, because God binds them and bars their way. Thus after several plagues, Pharaoh wished to pray to God, but God told Moses in "Before he goes out [to pray to God], stand before Pharaoh." Reading the words of , "and the heart of his servants," a Midrash taught that when Pharaoh's heart softened, his servants' hardened, and when they softened, he hardened. When both softened, God hardened their hearts, as states. God closed their hearts to repentance to punish them for their earlier stubbornness. Reading the words "My signs (, ototai) in the midst of them" in , Rabbi Judah ben Simon taught that God inscribed the letters of the plagues on their very bodies. Similarly, a Midrash taught that God inscribed abbreviations of the plagues on the staff of Moses, so that he would know which plague was next. It was taught in a Baraita that Rabbi Judah the Prince (or others say Rabbi Meir) used to say that Providence repays a person measure for measure. Thus, a Midrash taught that God sent the plagues against Pharaoh measure for measure. God changed the Egyptians' water into blood because the Egyptians prevented the Israelites from using the ritual bath (mikveh) so as to prevent the Israelite women from having marital relations with their husbands. God brought frogs because the Egyptians had ordered the Israelites to bring them reptiles and creeping creatures (which were an abomination to the Israelites). God sent