Ezekiel 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Study Note
Study Note
The new-covenant promise 'a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh' is one of the most profound anthropological promises in the Old Testament — a complete interior transformation rather than merely behavioral reform. The contrast between 'heart of stone' (stony, unresponsive, hard) and 'heart of flesh' (responsive, soft, living) employs biological metaphor for the spiritual difference between covenantal resistance and receptivity. Paul's 2 Corinthians 3:3 ('written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart') directly applies this verse to the ministry of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 develops the same 'law on the heart' theme, and together they form the Old Testament's most explicit anticipation of the Spirit-given interior life described in Romans 8.
Other Translations
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I have given to you a new heart, And a new spirit I give in your midst, And I have turned aside the heart of stone out of your flesh, And I have given to you a heart of flesh.
And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.
Cross References
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy …
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good …
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take …
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, …
Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the …
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no …
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with …
Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of …
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive …