Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.
Parallel translations
- WEB Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
- KJV Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
- NKJV Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
- NASB So circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck any longer.
- NLT Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses calls Israel to circumcise their hearts and stop being stubborn. God seeks inward transformation, not merely outward ritual.
Overview
Beyond physical circumcision, God demands a circumcised heart, a removal of inward resistance to Him. The command exposes that the people's deepest problem is internal and spiritual. Scripture later promises that God Himself will circumcise the heart, fulfilled in the new birth and the Spirit's work through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
- Deut 30:6The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
- Lev 26:41and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,
- Col 2:11In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
- Rom 2:28–29A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical.
- Deut 9:6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
- Jer 4:14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- Deut 9:13The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
- Deut 31:27For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!
- Jas 4:6–7But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 10:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.