Ezekiel 2:4

2:4 The people ¹  to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, ²  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ ³ 

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 ⁴  testifies to their guilt; ⁵ 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ⁶ 

Too bad for them! ⁷ 

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. ⁸ 

You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ⁹ 

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 

[2:4]  ¹ 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.

[2:4]  ² tc Heb “stern of face and hard of heart.” The phrases “stern of face” and “hard of heart” are lacking in the LXX.

[2:4]  ³ 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).

[3:9]  ⁴ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[3:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have the forehead of a prostitute.”

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  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.

[5:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ¹² tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”