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Ezekiel 3:7

in Ezekiel 3

But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are of a hard forehead and of a stiff heart.

KJV

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.

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This verse in Ezekiel 3

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

(Verse 7.) But the house of Israel does not want to listen to you, because they do not want to listen to me. For the entire house of Israel is stubborn and hard-hearted. Do not be dismayed, he says, if they do not want to listen to you. For this reason, they will not listen to you: because they will despise listening to me: as the Savior also said: Whoever does not receive you, does not receive me (Ibid., X, 40) . In which it is clearly shown that there is free will.

This site's exposition

unwilling to listen to you

on Ezekiel 3:7-9

The Lord tells Ezekiel why he will go unheard: Israel “will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me.” The whole house is “hard-headed and hard-hearted,” and the Lord answers: “I will make your face as hard as their faces.”

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 10 · Written before 604.

proposed

And when it is added: "But the house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me," the hardness of Judea is indicated, which both understood the words of the preachers and refused to follow them. And it is well said: "They will not hear you, because they will not hear me," according to what is written: "He who despises you, despises me." The reason why they do not hear is also added when it is said: "For the whole house of Israel is of hardened forehead and stubborn heart." When the house of Israel is said to have a hardened forehead, what else is to be understood, what else is to be thought, except that frequent sin hardens the forehead of the heart in shamelessness, so that the more often it is committed, the less the mind of the one committing it feels ashamed of it? And therefore the sinner sometimes arrives at such great hardness of heart that he is no longer sensitive to correction, because he who has become hardened by the habit of sinning in no way feels the word of one correcting him, that is, the hand of one touching him, just as it is also said to Judea, who sinned more frequently: "You have acquired the forehead of a prostitute; you refused to blush." Or certainly a hardened forehead is one accustomed to the activities of this world, because just as there are some who prefer quiet to all the rewards and honors of the world, so there are some who, in order to appear to be something in this world, sweat at earthly labors, persist in lawsuits, and involve themselves in quarrels. And although they feel their body failing amid their labors, yet conquered by love of earthly things, they are delightfully wearied. To them it is said through the prophet: "Ephraim is a heifer trained to love threshing." For a heifer accustomed to threshing on the threshing floor, even if released from labor, returns of its own accord. […]

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

But the house of Israel would not hearken unto thee,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

They are prejudiced against the law of God, and for that reason turn a deaf ear to his prophets, whose business it is to enforce his law. (4.) He must resolve to put on courage, and Christ promises to steel him with it,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Impudent and hard-hearted - “Stiff of forehead, and hard of heart.” - Margin. The marginal readings on several verses here are very nervous and very correct.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּבֵ֣יתand [the] house of

    uveitH1004 →2046 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • לֹ֤אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יֹאבוּ֙they will be willing

    yovuH14 →54 times

  • לִשְׁמֹ֣עַto listen

    lishmoa'H8085 →1159 times

  • אֵלֶ֔יךָto you

    ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • אֵינָ֥םnot they

    ʾeinamH369 →789 times

  • אֹבִ֖ים[are] willing

    ʾovimH14 →54 times

  • לִשְׁמֹ֣עַto listen

    lishmoa'H8085 →1159 times

  • אֵלָ֑יto me

    ʾelaiH413 →5510 times

  • כִּ֚יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • בֵּ֣ית[the] house of

    beitH1004 →2046 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • חִזְקֵי־[are] hard of

    chizkei-H2389 →56 times

  • מֵ֥צַחforehead

    metzachH4696 →13 times

  • וּקְשֵׁי־and stern of

    ukeshei-H7186 →

  • לֵ֖בheart

    levH3820 →595 times

  • הֵֽמָּה׃they

    hemahH1992 →553 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

John 15:20Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.8 worksLuke 10:16Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”5 worksEzekiel 2:4They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’5 works1 Samuel 8:7And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.4 worksMalachi 2:2If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.4 worksRomans 2:5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Zechariah 7:11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.3 worksLuke 13:34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!2 worksJeremiah 44:16“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!2 worksEzekiel 24:7For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.2 worksJeremiah 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.2 worksJeremiah 44:4–5Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’2 worksJohn 5:40–47yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.2 worksLuke 19:14But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’2 worksIsaiah 3:9The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.2 worksJeremiah 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.2 worksJeremiah 25:3–4“From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.2 worksAmos 8:2“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Luke 10:16

    Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

    it leads to

    • John 13:20

      Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me.”

    • 1 Thessalonians 4:8

      Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

    • Matthew 10:40

      He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me.

  • Through

    Luke 13:34

    O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…

    it leads to

    • Matthew 23:37–39

      O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…

    • Deuteronomy 32:11–12

      As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.

    • Isaiah 30:15

      For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”

  • Through

    1 Samuel 8:7

    And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as…

    it leads to

    • Luke 10:16

      Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

    • 1 Samuel 10:19

      But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions, and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

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About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel: the study guide →Read Ezekiel 3 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Gregory the Dialogist, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 10; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ezekiel 3 →