But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned away and abandoned me.
Parallel translations
- WEB “But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone.
- KJV But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
- BSB But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.
- NKJV But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; They have revolted and departed.
- NASB ‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.
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
When David inquires again, the Lord directs a different strategy of flanking the enemy near the mulberry trees. God gives specific guidance for this new battle.
Overview
David seeks the Lord a second time, and this time God instructs him not to attack head-on but to circle behind and strike from the front of the balsam trees. The changed tactics show that David did not rely on past patterns but on fresh divine direction. His careful obedience contrasts with self-reliant presumption and models trust in God's specific leading.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 6:28They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.
- Hos 11:7My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them.
- Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Ps 95:10Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”
- Deut 21:18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them;
- Isa 1:5Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Isa 31:6Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.
- Jer 5:5I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
- Hos 4:8They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 5:23 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.