God’s Role in the Story of Passover

I grew up learning the version of the story where God’s role was sending the plagues upon the Egyptians in order to convince Pharaoh to free the Jewish slaves. Pharaoh did not comply until Death of the First Born.

But I just read of another version where God had actual tangible influence over Pharaohs’ decisions the whole time, and was oscillating him back and forth, preventing Pharaoh from making a decision; all the while sending the plagues; kind of keeping Pharaoh captive and toying with him.

I’ve never heard that before. Where does that version of the story come from? Which is true?

Thanks!