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If one of your kinsmen
in any community is in need in the land which the LORD, your God,
is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand
to him in his need. Instead, you shall open your hand to him and
freely lend him enough to meet his need. Be on your guard lest,
entertaining the mean thought that the seventh year, the year of
relaxation, is near, you grudge help to your needy kinsman and
give him nothing; else he will cry to the LORD against you and you
will be held guilty. When you give to him, give freely and not
with ill will; for the LORD, your God, will bless you for this in
all your works and undertakings. The needy will never be lacking
in the land; that is why I command you to open your hand to your
poor and needy kinsman in your country. [DEUT 15:7-11] Zedekiah
was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned
eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD,
his God, and he did not humble himself before the prophet
Jeremiah, who spoke the word of the LORD. He also rebelled against
King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He became
stiff-necked and hardened his heart rather than return to the
LORD, the God of Israel. Likewise all the princes of Judah, the
priests and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing
all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD'S
temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. [2CHRON 36:11-14]
His heart is hard as stone; his flesh, as the lower millstone.
[JOB 41:16]
But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey
me. So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their
own designs. But even now if my people would listen, if Israel
would walk in my paths, In a moment I would subdue their foes,
against their enemies unleash my hand. [PS 81:12-15]
Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your
hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert. There
your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my
works. Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: "This
people's heart goes astray; they do not know my ways."
Therefore I swore in my anger: "They shall never enter my
rest." [Taken from PS 95:7-11]
He who conceals his sins prospers not, but he who confesses and forsakes them obtains mercy.
Happy the man who is always on his guard; but he who hardens his heart will fall into evil.
[PROV 28:13-14]
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden
our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your
servants, the tribes of your heritage. [ISA 63:17]
At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD'S throne; there
all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the
LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their
hardhearted wickedness. [JER 3:17]
This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then
I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the
ways that I command you, so that you may prosper. But they obeyed
not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their
evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. From
the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day,
I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they
have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks
and done worse than their fathers. [Taken from JER 7:23-26]
The LORD answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I
set before them, and have not followed it or listened to my voice,
but followed rather the hardness of their hearts and the Baals, as
their fathers had taught them; therefore, thus says the LORD of
hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to
eat and poison to drink. I will scatter them among nations whom
neither they nor their fathers have known; I will send the sword
to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them. [JER 9:12-15]
Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice,
from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to
this day. But they did not listen or give ear. Each one followed
the hardness of his evil heart, till I brought upon them all the
threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I
commanded them. A conspiracy has been found, the LORD said to me,
among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. They have
returned to the crimes of their forefathers who refused to obey my
words. They also have followed and served strange gods; the
covenant which I had made with their fathers, the house of Israel
and the house of Judah have broken. Therefore, thus says the LORD:
See, I bring upon them misfortune which they cannot escape. Though
they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. [JER 11:7-11]
When you proclaim all these words to this people and they ask
you: "Why has the LORD pronounced all these great evils
against us? What is our crime? What sin have we committed against
the LORD, our God?" - you shall answer them: It is because
your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and followed strange
gods, which they served and worshiped; but me they have forsaken, and my law they have not observed. And you have done worse than
your fathers. Here you are, every one of you, walking in the
hardness of his evil heart instead of listening to me. I will cast
you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers
have known; there you can serve strange gods day and night,
because I will not grant you my mercy. [JER 16:10-13]
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Listen not to the words of your
prophets, who fill you with emptiness; Visions of their own fancy
they speak, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say to those who
despise the word of the LORD, "Peace shall be yours";
And to everyone who walks in hardness of heart, "No evil
shall overtake you." [JER 23:16-17]
You see, O LORD, how I am wronged; do me justice! You see all
their vindictiveness, all their plots against me. You hear their
insults, O LORD, (all their plots against me), The whispered
murmurings of my foes, against me all the day; Whether they sit or
stand, see, I am their taunt song. Requite them as they deserve, O
LORD, according to their deeds; Give them hardness of heart, as
your curse upon them; Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from
under your heavens! [LAM 3:59-66]
Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak with you. As he spoke to
me, spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the
one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to
the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and
their fathers have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of
face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But
you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD! And whether they
heed or resist - for they are a rebellious house - they shall know
that a prophet has been among them. [Taken from EZEK 2:1-5]
(This word of the LORD came to Zechariah: Thus says the LORD of
hosts:) Render true judgment, and show kindness and compassion
toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the
alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your
hearts. But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their
backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear. And they made
their hearts diamond hard so as not to hear the teaching and the
message that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the
former prophets. Then the LORD of hosts in his great anger said
that, as they had not listened when he called, so he would not
listen when they called, but would scatter them with a whirlwind
among all the nations that they did not know. Thus the land was
left desolate after them with no one traveling to and fro; they
made the pleasant land into a desert. [Taken from ZECH 7:8-14]
The disciples approached him and said, "Why do you speak
to them in parables?" He said to them in reply, "Because
knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been
granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who
has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has
not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to
them in parables, because 'they look but do not see and hear but
do not listen or understand.' Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in
them, which says: 'You shall indeed hear but not understand you
shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this
people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed
their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal
them.'" [MT 13:10-15]
Some Pharisees approached [Jesus], and tested him, saying,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause
whatever?" He said in reply, "Have you not read that
from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and
said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and
be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So
they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has
joined together, no human being must separate." They said to
him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman
a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?" He said to them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to
divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to
you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery." [Taken from MT 19:3-9]
Again he entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a
withered hand. They watched him closely to see if he would cure
him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the
man with the withered hand, "Come up here before us."
Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy
it?" But they remained silent. Looking around at them with
anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man,
"Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out and his
hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took
counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death. [MK 3:1-6]
They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the
contrary, their hearts were hardened. [MK 6:52]
They had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf
with them in the boat. He enjoined them, "Watch out, guard
against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no
bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, "Why do
you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet
understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have
eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when
I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker
baskets full of fragments you picked up?" They answered him,
"Twelve." "When I broke the seven loaves for the
four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick
up?" They answered (him), "Seven." He said to them,
"Do you still not understand?" [MK 8:14-21]
The Pharisees approached and asked, "Is it lawful for a
husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him. He said
to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?" They
replied, "Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and
dismiss her." But Jesus told them, "Because of the
hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from
the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female. For
this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined
to his wife), and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no
longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate." In the house the disciples
again questioned him about this. He said to them, "Whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against
her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she
commits adultery." [MK 10:2-12]
When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he
appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven
demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and
weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by
her, they did not believe. After this he appeared in another form
to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They
returned and told the others; but they did not believe them
either. (But) later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to
them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.
[MK 16:9-14]
Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a
little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may
not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he
is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that
you may become children of the light." After he had said
this, Jesus left and hid from them. Although he had performed so
many signs in their presence they did not believe in him, in order
that the word which Isaiah the prophet spoke might be fulfilled:
"Lord, who has believed our preaching, to whom has the might
of the Lord been revealed?" For this reason they could not
believe, because again Isaiah said: "He blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart, so that they might not see with their
eyes and understand with their heart and be converted, and I would heal them."
[JN 12:35-40]
So I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer
live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; darkened
in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their
ignorance, because of their hardness of heart, they have become
callous and have handed themselves over to licentiousness for the
practice of every kind of impurity to excess. That is not how you
learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the
old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful
desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on
the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness
of truth. [EPH 4:17-24]
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Oh, that today you
would hear his voice, 'Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
in the day of testing in the desert, where your ancestors tested
and tried me and saw my works for forty years. Because of this I
was provoked with that generation and I said, "They have
always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways."
As I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter into my
rest."'" Take care, brothers, that none of you may have
an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today," so
that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. We have
become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the
reality firm until the end, for it is said: "Oh, that today
you would hear his voice: 'Harden not your hearts as at the
rebellion.'" Who were those who rebelled when they heard? Was
it not all those who came out of Egypt under Moses? With whom was
he "provoked for forty years"? Was it not those who had
sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? And to whom did he
"swear that they should not enter into his rest," if not
to those who were disobedient? And we see that they could not
enter for lack of faith. [HEB 3:7-19]
For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this
manner, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his
works"; and again, in the previously mentioned place,
"They shall not enter into my rest." Therefore, since it
remains that some will enter into it, and those who formerly
received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, he
once more set a day, "today," when long afterwards he
spoke through David, as already quoted: "Oh, that today you
would hear his voice: 'Harden not your hearts.'" Now if
Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterwards of
another day. Therefore, a sabbath rest still remains for the
people of God. And whoever enters into God's rest, rests from his
own works as God did from his. Therefore, let us strive to enter
into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.
[HEB 4:4-11]
Also try:
stubborn
[S29]
pride
/ proud [P14]
hate
/ hatred / hateful [H3]
grace
/ graced / graceful [G6]
convert
/ conversion [C10]
heart
/ hearts [H6a]
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