Deuteronomy 10:16

10:16 Therefore, cleanse ¹  your heart and stop being so stubborn! ² 

Deuteronomy 30:6

30:6 The Lord your God will also cleanse ³  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ⁴  so that you may love him ⁵  with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

Jeremiah 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ⁶ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ⁷  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Colossians 2:11-12

2:11 In him you also were circumcised – not, however, ⁸  with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal ⁹  of the fleshly body, ¹⁰  that is, ¹¹  through the circumcision done by Christ. 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your ¹²  faith in the power ¹³  of God who raised him from the dead.

¹ tn Heb “circumcise the foreskin of” (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). Reference to the Abrahamic covenant prompts Moses to recall the sign of that covenant, namely, physical circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Just as that act signified total covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision (cleansing of the heart) signifies more internally a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will of God (cf. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26).

² tn Heb “your neck do not harden again.” See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.

³ tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.

⁴ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

⁶ tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

⁷ tn Heb “lest.”

⁸ tn The terms “however” and “but” in this sentence were supplied in order to emphasize the contrast.

⁹ tn The articular noun τῇ ἀπεκδύσει (th apekdusei) is a noun which ends in -σις (-sis) and therefore denotes action, i.e., “removal.” Since the head noun is a verbal noun, the following genitive τοῦ σώματος (tou swmatos) is understood as an objective genitive, receiving the action of the head noun.

¹⁰ tn Grk “in the removal of the body of flesh.” The genitive τῆς σαρκός (th" sarko") has been translated as an attributive genitive, “fleshly body.”

¹¹ tn The second prepositional phrase beginning with ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ (en th peritomh) is parallel to the prepositional phrase ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει (en th apekdusei) and gives a further explanation of it. The words “that is” were supplied to bring out this force in the translation.

¹² tn The article with the genitive modifier τῆς πίστεως (th" pistew") is functioning as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

¹³ tn The genitive τῆς ἐνεργείας (th" energeia") has been translated as an objective genitive, “faith in the power.”