God Hardened Pharaoh's Heart?

God, in one sense, did not want Pharaoh to simply let the Israelites go from Egypt easily. So Pharaoh's heart was hardened necessitating God to bring these plagues upon Egypt that would demonstrate his mighty power both to the Egyptians and to the Israelites as well and thereby free them from slavery in Egypt. I don't think that God immediately caused Pharaoh to harden his heart. In other texts it says, “Pharaoh hardened his heart” – Pharaoh did it. But I think that, from a Molinist perspective or a middle knowledge perspective, we can understand these verses to mean that God knew that if Pharaoh were in these circumstances he would freely react by hardening his heart. So by placing Pharaoh in those circumstances and leaving him free to do whatever he wanted, God in effect weakly actualized Pharaoh's hardening his heart. He didn't do it directly or strongly, but he did it indirectly and weakly by putting Pharaoh in these circumstances where he knew he would do this.