Exodus 32:9

32:9 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have seen this people. ¹  Look ²  what a stiff-necked people they are! ³ 

Exodus 33:3

33:3 Go up ⁴  to a land flowing with milk and honey. But ⁵  I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you ⁶  on the way.”

Exodus 33:5

33:5 For ⁷  the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, ⁸  I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, ⁹  that I may know ¹⁰  what I should do to you.’” ¹¹ 

Exodus 34:9

34:9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ¹²  go among us, for we ¹³  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Deuteronomy 9:6

9:6 Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn ¹⁴  people!

Deuteronomy 9:13

9:13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn ¹⁵  lot!

Deuteronomy 31:27

31:27 for I know about your rebellion and stubbornness. ¹⁶  Indeed, even while I have been living among you to this very day, you have rebelled against the Lord; you will be even more rebellious after my death! ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ¹⁸  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 30:8

30:8 You will return and obey the Lord, keeping all his commandments I am giving ¹⁹  you today.

Nehemiah 9:16

9:16 “But they – our ancestors ²⁰  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ²¹  and did not obey your commandments.

Psalms 75:5

75:5 Do not be so certain you have won! ²² 

Do not speak with your head held so high! ²³ 

Psalms 78:8

78:8 Then they will not be like their ancestors,

who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that was not committed

and faithful to God. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 48:4

48:4 I did this ²⁵  because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:23

17:23 Your ancestors, ²⁷  however, did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They stubbornly refused ²⁸  to pay attention or to respond to any discipline.’

Ezekiel 2:4

2:4 The people ²⁹  to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, ³⁰  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ ³¹ 

Zechariah 7:11-12

7:11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 7:12 Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, ³²  so that they could not obey the Torah and the other words the Lord who rules over all had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord who rules over all had poured out great wrath.

[32:9]  ¹ sn This is a bold anthropomorphism; it is as if God has now had a chance to get to know these people and has discovered how rebellious they are. The point of the figure is that there has been discernible evidence of their nature.

[32:9]  ² tn Heb “and behold” or “and look.” The expression directs attention in order to persuade the hearer.

[32:9]  ³ sn B. Jacob says the image is that of the people walking before God, and when he called to them the directions, they would not bend their neck to listen; they were resolute in doing what they intended to do (Exodus, 943). The figure describes them as refusing to submit, but resisting in pride.

[33:3]  ⁴ tn This verse seems to be a continuation of the command to “go up” since it begins with “to a land….” The intervening clauses are therefore parenthetical or relative. But the translation is made simpler by supplying the verb.

[33:3]  ⁵ tn This is a strong adversative here, “but.”

[33:3]  ⁶ tn The clause is “lest I consume you.” It would go with the decision not to accompany them: “I will not go up with you…lest I consume (destroy) you in the way.” The verse is saying that because of the people’s bent to rebellion, Yahweh would not remain in their midst as he had formerly said he would do. Their lives would be at risk if he did.

[33:5]  ⁷ tn The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.

[33:5]  ⁸ tn The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then….”

[33:5]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”

[33:5]  ¹⁰ tn The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off…that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.

[33:5]  ¹¹ tn This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”

[34:9]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” two times here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[34:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “it is.” Hebrew uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here in agreement with the noun “people.”

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “stiff-necked” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[9:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “stiff-necked.” See note on the word “stubborn” in 9:6.

[31:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “stiffness of neck” (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV). See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.

[31:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “How much more after my death?” The Hebrew text has a sarcastic rhetorical question here; the translation seeks to bring out the force of the question.

[31:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

[30:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I now enjoin on you.”

[9:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

[9:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

[75:5]  ²² tn Heb “do not lift up on high your horn.”

[75:5]  ²³ tn Heb “[do not] speak with unrestrained neck.” The negative particle is understood in this line by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[78:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a generation that did not make firm its heart and whose spirit was not faithful with God.” The expression “make firm the heart” means “to be committed, devoted” (see 1 Sam 7:3).

[48:4]  ²⁵ tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.

[48:4]  ²⁶ sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.

[17:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “They.” The antecedent is spelled out to avoid any possible confusion.

[17:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[2:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sons.” The word choice may reflect treaty idiom, where the relationship between an overlord and his subjects can be described as that of father and son.

[2:4]  ³⁰ tc Heb “stern of face and hard of heart.” The phrases “stern of face” and “hard of heart” are lacking in the LXX.

[2:4]  ³¹ tn The phrase “thus says [the Lord]” occurs 129 times in Ezekiel; the announcement is identical to the way messengers often introduced their messages (Gen 32:5; 45:9; Exod 5:10; Num 20:14; Judg 11:15).

[7:12]  ³² tn The Hebrew term שָׁמִיר (shamir) means literally “hardness” and since it is said in Ezek 3:9 to be harder than flint, many scholars suggest that it refers to diamond. It is unlikely that diamond was known to ancient Israel, however, so probably a hard stone like emery or corundum is in view. The translation nevertheless uses “diamond” because in modern times it has become proverbial for its hardness. A number of English versions use “flint” here (e.g., NASB, NIV).