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 people!

Deuteronomy 31:27

31:27 for I know about your rebellion and stubbornness. 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!

Nehemiah 9:16-17

9:16 “But they – our ancestors – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments. 9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. You did not abandon them,

Nehemiah 9:26

9:26 “Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies.

Matthew 19:8

19:8 Jesus said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, 10  but from the beginning it was not this way.

Acts 7:51

7:51 “You stubborn 11  people, with uncircumcised 12  hearts and ears! 13  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors 14  did!

Hebrews 3:7-10

Exposition of Psalm 95: Hearing God’s Word in Faith

3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 15 

Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 16 

3:8Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.

3:9There your fathers tested me and tried me, 17  and they saw my works for forty years.

3:10Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said,Their hearts are always wandering 18  and they have not known my ways.


tn Heb “stiff-necked” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

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

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.

tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

tn Heb “they cast your law behind their backs.”

tc A few important mss (א Φ pc) have the name “Jesus” here, but it is probably not original. Nevertheless, this translation routinely specifies the referents of pronouns to improve clarity, so that has been done here.

10 tn Grk “heart” (a collective singular).

11 sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.

12 tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.

13 tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)

14 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

15 sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.

16 tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

17 tn Grk “tested me by trial.”

18 tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”