Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
- BSB do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- NKJV “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
- NASB Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, As on the day of Massah in the wilderness,
- NLT The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
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
Do not harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah and Massah. Persistent unbelief and rebellion hardens the heart against God.
Overview
The psalm recalls Israel's rebellion in the wilderness, where they quarreled and tested God at Meribah and Massah (Exodus 17). Their hardened hearts serve as a sober warning to every generation. Hebrews cites this to urge believers to respond in faith to Christ today, lest they fall through the same unbelief (Hebrews 3:8, 13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Exod 17:7And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
- Heb 3:8–9Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
- Num 20:13This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
- Num 14:11And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
- Num 14:22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
- Heb 3:15–19While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
- Deut 6:16Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
- 1 Sam 6:6Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
- Heb 12:25See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
- Rom 2:5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
- Jude 1:5I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
- Exod 17:2Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
- Heb 3:13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
- Acts 19:9But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
- Exod 8:15But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
- Dan 5:20But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
- Deut 1:34–35And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
- Num 14:27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 95:8 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
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