Ezekiel 11:19-20

11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ¹  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ²  and I will give them tender hearts, ³  11:20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ⁴ 

Zechariah 7:12

7:12 Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, ⁵  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.

Matthew 13:5

13:5 Other ⁶  seeds fell on rocky ground ⁷  where they did not have much soil. They sprang up quickly because the soil was not deep. ⁸ 

Matthew 13:20-21

13:20 The ⁹  seed sown on rocky ground ¹⁰  is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; ¹¹  when ¹²  trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

Mark 4:16-17

4:16 These are the ones sown on rocky ground: As soon as they hear the word, they receive it with joy. 4:17 But ¹³  they have no root in themselves and do not endure. ¹⁴  Then, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.

Mark 4:2

4:2 He taught them many things in parables, ¹⁵  and in his teaching said to them:

Colossians 3:3

3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

[11:19]  ¹ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ² tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ³ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[11:20]  ⁴ sn The expression They will be my people, and I will be their God occurs as a promise to Abraham (Gen 17:8), Moses (Exod 6:7), and the nation (Exod 29:45).

[7:12]  ⁵ 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).

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Here and in vv. 7 and 8 δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:5]  ⁷ sn The rocky ground in Palestine would be a limestone base lying right under the soil.

[13:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “it did not have enough depth of earth.”

[13:20]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one.” The next two statements like this one have this same syntactical structure.

[13:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “is temporary.”

[13:21]  ¹² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[4:17]  ¹³ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[4:17]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “are temporary.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ sn Though parables can contain a variety of figures of speech (cf. 2:19-22; 3:23-25; 4:3-9, 26-32; 7:15-17; 13:28), many times they are simply stories that attempt to teach spiritual truth (which is unknown to the hearers) by using a comparison with something known to the hearers. In general, parables usually advance a single idea, though there may be many parts and characters in a single parable and subordinate ideas may expand the main idea further. The beauty of using the parable as a teaching device is that it draws the listener into the story, elicits an evaluation, and demands a response.