12
Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which the LORD of Hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Hosts.
Yea, they made their hearts [as] an adamant stone The word here used is translated a "diamond" in ( Jeremiah 17:1 ) and it is said to be harder than a flint, ( Ezekiel 3:9 ) . The Jewish writers say
FOOTNOTES:
F7 it is a worm like a barley corn, so strong as to cut the hardest stones in pieces; Moses (they say) used it in hewing the stones for the two tables of the law, and in fitting the precious stones in the ephod; and Solomon in cutting the stones for the building of the temple; and is so hard that it cannot be broken by iron: and as hard is naturally the heart of man, and which becomes more so by sinning, and obstinate persisting in it, that nothing can remove the hardness of it but the powerful and efficacious grace of God: as hard as the adamant is, it is to be softened by the blood of a goat, as naturalists says F8; so the blood of Christ sprinkled on the heart, and a sense of forgiveness of sin by it, will soften the hardest heart: lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath seat in his Spirit by the former prophets; the words of reproof, admonition, caution, and exhortation, which Jeremiah and others were sent to deliver to them, under the influence of the Spirit of God: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts; which brought the Chaldeans upon them, who carried them captive into Babylon. F7 Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 12. Pirke Abot. c. 5. sect. 5. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Kimchi in 1 Reg. vi. 7. Jarchi in Isa. v. 6. F8 Pausan. Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 485. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 37. c. 4.
10
Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'
11
But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
12
Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which the LORD of Hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Hosts.
13
It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen," said the LORD of Hosts;
14
"but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate."