Isaiah 29:10

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply. ¹ 

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

Isaiah 63:17

63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray ²  from your ways, ³ 

and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? ⁴ 

Return for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your inheritance!

Exodus 7:3

7:3 But I will harden ⁵  Pharaoh’s heart, and although I will multiply ⁶  my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt,

Exodus 10:27

10:27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to release them.

Exodus 11:10

11:10 So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.

Exodus 14:17

14:17 And as for me, I am going to harden ⁷  the hearts of the Egyptians so that ⁸  they will come after them, that I may be honored ⁹  because ¹⁰  of Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and his horsemen.

Deuteronomy 2:30

2:30 But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our ¹¹  God had made him obstinate ¹²  and stubborn ¹³  so that he might deliver him over to you ¹⁴  this very day.

Ezekiel 3:6-11

3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ¹⁵  – surely if ¹⁶  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ¹⁷  because they are not willing to listen to me, ¹⁸  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ¹⁹ 

3:8 “I have made your face adamant ²⁰  to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ²¹  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²²  for they are a rebellious house.”

3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ²³  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

Ezekiel 3:2

3:2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.

Colossians 2:16

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days –

¹ tn Heb “a disposition [or “spirit”] of deep sleep.” Through this mixed metaphor (sleep is likened to a liquid which one pours and in turn symbolizes spiritual dullness) the prophet emphasizes that God himself has given the people over to their spiritual insensitivity as a form of judgment.

² tn Some suggest a tolerative use of the Hiphil here, “[why do] you allow us to stray?” (cf. NLT). Though the Hiphil of תָעָה (ta’ah) appears to be tolerative in Jer 50:6, elsewhere it is preferable or necessary to take it as causative. See Isa 3:12; 9:15; and 30:28, as well as Gen 20:13; 2 Kgs 21:9; Job 12:24-25; Prov 12:26; Jer 23:13, 32; Hos 4:12; Amos 2:4; Mic 3:5.

³ tn This probably refers to God’s commands.

⁴ tn Heb “[Why do] you harden our heart[s] so as not to fear you.” The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

⁵ tn The clause begins with the emphatic use of the pronoun and a disjunctive vav (ו) expressing the contrast “But as for me, I will harden.” They will speak, but God will harden.

⁶ tn The form beginning the second half of the verse is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, הִרְבֵּיתִי (hirbeti). It could be translated as a simple future in sequence after the imperfect preceding it, but the logical connection is not obvious. Since it carries the force of an imperfect due to the sequence, it may be subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause that begins in v. 4. That maintains the flow of the argument.

⁷ tn הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle gives it the force of a futur instans participle, meaning “I am about to harden” or “I am going to harden” their heart.

⁸ tn The form again is the imperfect tense with vav (ו) to express the purpose or the result of the hardening. The repetition of the verb translated “come” is interesting: Moses is to divide the sea in order that the people may cross, but God will harden the Egyptians’ hearts in order that they may follow.

⁹ tn For the comments on this verb see the discussion in v. 4. God would get glory by defeating Egypt.

¹⁰ tn Or “I will get glory over.”

¹¹ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”

¹² tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”

¹³ tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “into your hand.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “hear.”

¹⁶ tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.

¹⁷ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

¹⁸ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

¹⁹ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”

²⁰ tn Heb “strong, resolute.”

²¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.

²² tn Heb “of their faces.”

²³ tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”