'Hearts' in the Bible

For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my Sabbaths, and give their hearts to pleasing me, and keep their agreement with me:

We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit.

Why, Yahweh, do You make us stray from Your ways?You harden our hearts so we do not fear You.Return, because of Your servants,the tribes of Your heritage.

All day my hands have been stretched out to an uncontrolled people, who go in an evil way, after the purposes of their hearts;

And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting-place for the herds: for my people whose hearts have been turned back to me.

Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; you will wail because your spirits will be crushed.

And when you look, your hearts will rejoice and your bodies will flourish like grass; and it will be made known that the LORD's hand is with his servants, but his fury is with his enemies.

At that time Jerusalem will be called, Yahweh’s Throne, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh in Jerusalem. They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;remove the foreskin of your hearts,men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fireand burn with no one to extinguish itbecause of your evil deeds.

And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king will be dead in him, and the hearts of the rulers; and the priests will be overcome with fear, and the prophets with wonder.

"Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil so that you may yet be delivered. How long will you continue to harbor up wicked schemes within you?

O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth?You [have seen their faithless heart and] have stricken them,But they did not weaken;You have consumed them,But they refused to take correction or instruction.They have made their faces harder than rock;They have refused to repent and return to You.

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.They have turned aside and have gone away.

‘They do not say in their heart,“Let us now fear and worship the Lord our God [with profound awe and reverence],Who gives rain in its season,Both the autumn and the spring rain,Who keeps for usThe appointed weeks of the harvest.”

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better.

Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.”

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord's sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts."

So I said to the Lord, "O Lord who rules over all, you are a just judge! You examine people's hearts and minds. I want to see you pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause."

You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. "You are near to us," they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you're far from their hearts.

These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship—they will be like this underwear, of no use at all.

Then the Lord said to me, The prophets say false words in my name, and I gave them no orders, and I said nothing to them: what they say to you is a false vision and wonder-working words without substance, the deceit of their hearts.

Your words were found, and I consumed them. Your words were joy and my hearts delight, because I bear your name, LORD God of the Heavenly Armies.

The sin of Judah is writtenwith an iron stylus.With a diamond pointit is engraved on the tablet of their heartsand on the horns of their altars,

The Lord says, "I will put a curse on people who trust in mere human beings, who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, and whose hearts have turned away from the Lord.

I, the Lord, probe into people's minds. I examine people's hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.

O Lord who rules over all, you test and prove the righteous. You see into people's hearts and minds. Pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause.

They continually say to those who reject what the Lord has said, 'Things will go well for you!' They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, 'Nothing bad will happen to you!'

How long will this go on? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy from the deceit that is in their hearts?

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Then the rulers said to the king, Let this man be put to death, because he is putting fear into the hearts of the men of war who are still in the town, and into the hearts of the people, by saying such things to them: this man is not working for the well-being of the people, but for their damage.

For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.

Even to this day their hearts are not broken, and they have no fear, and have not gone in the way of my law or of my rules which I gave to you and to your fathers.

Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

The Lord spoke about Damascus. "The people of Hamath and Arpad will be dismayed because they have heard bad news. Their courage will melt away because of worry. Their hearts will not be able to rest.

So that your hearts may not become feeble and full of fear because of the news which will go about in the land; for a story will go about one year, and after that in another year another story, and violent acts in the land, ruler against ruler.

צ TsadeThe hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.Wall of Daughter Zion,let your tears run down like a riverday and night.Give yourself no reliefand your eyes no rest.

Let us lift up our hearts and our handsto God in heaven:

You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them.

Joy has left our hearts;our dancing has turned to mourning.

This is why our hearts faint, and why our eyes grow dim:

Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their detestable practices of every kind.

I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies and I will give them tender hearts,

But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for detestable things and practices, I will bring their actions down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;

“Now you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who are prophesying out of [the wishful thinking of] their own mind (inspiration). Prophesy against them

“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and have put sinful stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all?

so that I may take hold of the house of Israel by their hearts. They are all estranged from Me because of their idols.

because they rejected My ordinances, profaned My Sabbaths, and did not follow My statutes. For their hearts went after their idols.

I have appointed a sword for slaughterat all their gates,so that their hearts may meltand many may stumble.Yes! It is ready to flash like lightning;it is drawn for slaughter.

“‘Son of man, know that on the day I take their stronghold from them, their pride and joy, the delight of their eyes and the longing of their hearts, as well as their sons and daughters,

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Because the Philistines have acted revengefully and have taken vengeance [contemptuously] with malice in their hearts to destroy with everlasting hostility and hatred,”

I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

So My people come to you in crowds, sit in front of you, and hear your words, but they don’t obey them. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest profit.

And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

For they—their hearts like an oven—draw him into their oven.Their anger smolders all night;in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

They do not cry to Me from their hearts;rather, they wail on their beds.They slash themselves for grain and new wine;they turn away from Me.

Their hearts are devious;now they must bear their guilt.The Lord will break down their altarsand demolish their sacred pillars.

When they had pasture,they became satisfied;they were satisfied,and their hearts became proud.Therefore they forgot Me.

I will attack themlike a bear robbed of her cubsand tear open the rib cage over their hearts.I will devour them there like a lioness,like a wild beast that would rip them open.

"Yet even now," the Lord says, "return to me with all your heart -- with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your garments!"

Tear your hearts,not just your clothes,and return to the Lord your God.For He is gracious and compassionate,slow to anger, rich in faithful love,and He relents from sending disaster.

For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life:

And it is established -- she hath removed, She hath been brought up, And her handmaids are leading as the voice of doves, Tabering on their hearts.

Desolation, decimation, devastation!Hearts melt,knees tremble,loins shake,every face grows pale!

“It will come about at that timeThat I will search Jerusalem with lamps,And I will punish the menWho are stagnant in spirit,Who say in their hearts,‘The Lord will not do good or evil!’

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

Ephraim will be like a warrior,and their hearts will be glad as if with wine.Their children will see it and be glad;their hearts will rejoice in Yahweh.

Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin; for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Truly, I give baptism with water to those of you whose hearts are changed; but he who comes after me is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to take up: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire:

From that time Jesus went about preaching and saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Then He began to denounce [the people in] the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent [and change their hearts and lives].

“Woe (judgment is coming) to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon [cities of the Gentiles], they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes [their hearts would have been changed and they would have expressed sorrow for their sin and rebellion against God].

For this people’s heart has grown callous;their ears are hard of hearing,and they have shut their eyes;otherwise they might see with their eyesand hear with their ears,understand with their heartsand turn back—and I would cure them.

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

John came, and gave baptism in the waste land, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed.

And saying, The time has come, and the kingdom of God is near: let your hearts be turned from sin and have faith in the good news.

But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

And these are they who were planted on the good earth; such as give ear to the word, and take it into their hearts, and give fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much.

because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.

He told them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,

Knowing this, Jesus asked them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you don't have any bread? Don't you understand or perceive yet? Are your hearts hardened?

But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of the hardness of your hearts.

And whenever you make a prayer, let there be forgiveness in your hearts, if you have anything against anyone; so that you may have forgiveness for your sins from your Father who is in heaven.

Are we to give or not to give? But he, conscious of their false hearts, said to them, Why do you put me to the test? give me a penny, so that I may see it.

And later he was seen by the eleven themselves while they were taking food; and he said sharp words to them because they had no faith and their hearts were hard, and because they had no belief in those who had seen him after he had come back from the dead.

And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.