Nehemiah 9:29

9:29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹  will live. They boldly turned from you; ²  they rebelled ³  and did not obey.

Job 9:4

9:4 He is wise in heart ⁴  and mighty ⁵  in strength ⁶  –

who has resisted ⁷  him and remained safe? ⁸ 

Isaiah 48:4

48:4 I did this ⁹  because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹¹ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ¹² 

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

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ¹³ 

They refuse to change their ways. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 2:4

2:4 The people ¹⁵  to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, ¹⁶  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 3:7-9

3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ¹⁸  because they are not willing to listen to me, ¹⁹  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ²⁰ 

3:8 “I have made your face adamant ²¹  to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ²²  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²³  for they are a rebellious house.”

Ezekiel 11:19

11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ²⁴  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ²⁵  and I will give them tender hearts, ²⁶ 

Ezekiel 36:26

36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ²⁷  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁸ 

[9:29]  ¹ tn Heb “if a man keep.” See note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[9:29]  ² tn Heb “they gave a stubborn shoulder.”

[9:29]  ³ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck.”

[9:4]  ⁴ tn The genitive phrase translated “in heart” would be a genitive of specification, specifying that the wisdom of God is in his intelligent decisions.

[9:4]  ⁵ sn The words אַמִּיץ (’ammits) and כֹּחַ (koakh) are synonyms, the first meaning “sturdy; mighty; robust,” and the second “strength.” It too can be interpreted as a genitive of specification – God is mighty with respect to his power. But that comes close to expressing a superlative idea (like “song of songs” or “anger of his wrath”).

[9:4]  ⁶ tn The first half of the verse simply has “wise of heart and mighty of strength.” The entire line is a casus pendens that will refer to the suffix on אֵלָיו (’elayv) in the second colon. So the question is “Who has resisted the one who is wise of heart and mighty of strength?” Again, the rhetorical question is affirming that no one has done this.

[9:4]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil of the verb קָשָׁה (qashah, “to be hard”). It frequently is found with the word for “neck,” describing people as “stiff-necked,” i.e., stubborn, unbending. So the idea of resisting God fits well. The fact that this word occurs in Exodus with the idea of hardening the heart against God may indicate that there is an allusion to Pharaoh here.

[9:4]  ⁸ tn The use of שָׁלֵם (shalem) in the Qal is rare. It has been translated “remain safe” by E. Dhorme, “survived” by the NEB, “remained unscathed” by the NAB and NIV, or “succeeded” by KJV, G. R. Driver.

[48:4]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[2:4]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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).

[3:7]  ¹⁸ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

[3:7]  ¹⁹ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

[3:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”

[3:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “strong, resolute.”

[3:9]  ²² 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.

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “of their faces.”

[11:19]  ²⁴ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[36:26]  ²⁷ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²⁸ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.