Isaiah 48:4

48:4 I did this ¹  because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze. ² 

Jeremiah 5:3

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

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ⁴ 

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

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ⁵ 

They refuse to change their ways. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 6:29-30

6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.

But there is too much dross to be removed. ⁷ 

The process of refining them has proved useless. ⁸ 

The wicked have not been purged.

6:30 They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ ⁹ 

because the Lord rejects them.”

Zechariah 7:11-12

7:11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 7:12 Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, ¹⁰  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.

[48:4]  ¹ tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.

[48:4]  ² sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.

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

[5:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ⁶ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[6:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (me’esh tam) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (me’eshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (’eshah).

[6:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”

[6:30]  ⁹ tn This translation is intended to reflect the wordplay in the Hebrew text where the same root word is repeated in the two lines.

[7:12]  ¹⁰ 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).