Ezekiel 2:4

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

Ezekiel 24:7

24:7 For her blood was in it;

she poured it on an exposed rock;

she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

Isaiah 3:9

3:9 The look on their faces testifies to their guilt;

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin.

Too bad for them!

For they bring disaster on themselves.

Jeremiah 3:3

3:3 That is why the rains have been withheld,

and the spring rains have not come.

Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute.

You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness.

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. 10 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. 11 

They refuse to change their ways. 12 


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.

tc Heb “stern of face and hard of heart.” The phrases “stern of face” and “hard of heart” are lacking in the LXX.

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).

sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

tn Heb “you have the forehead of a prostitute.”

tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

10 tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

11 tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

12 tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”