Ezekiel 11:19–20

Context

Chapters 8–11 of Ezekiel form a unit in which Ezekiel, living among the exiles in Babylon, is carried in visions to Jerusalem and sees the idolatry practiced in the temple. Early in chapter 11 he sees twenty-five leaders gathered at the east gate of the temple. Comparing Jerusalem to a cauldron and themselves to the meat inside it, they are confident of their safety, and Ezekiel pronounces judgment on them. The people remaining in Jerusalem then claim that those taken into exile earlier have gone far from the LORD and that the land now belongs to them. In response, God promises to regather the scattered exiles and give them the land of Israel (Ezekiel 11:14–18).

Verses 19–20 are the heart of this promise of restoration: "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Ezekiel 11:19–20). In the Korean wording of the verse cited here, "new spirit" is rendered with sin (神), an archaic word meaning "spirit," and the two hearts are rendered "hard heart" and "soft heart"; in Hebrew they are literally a "heart of stone" and a "heart of flesh." The closing words, "they shall be my people, and I will be their God," are a stock Old Testament formula expressing the covenant relationship. Immediately afterward, verse 21 speaks of judgment on those whose hearts follow detestable things, and in verses 22–23 the glory of God departs from the city.

Interpretation

• Historical reading: The passage is read as a word of comfort to those exiled in 597 BC under King Jehoiachin, a group that included Ezekiel himself. The key point is a reversal: the future belongs not to the Jerusalem remnant who boasted of possessing the land but to the exiles who seemed to have been cast off.
• Reading as an announcement of the new covenant: Many Christian interpreters see this passage as a new covenant promise in the same vein as Ezekiel 36:25–27 and Jeremiah 31:34. They find its fulfillment in the New Testament teaching that the Holy Spirit writes the law on the heart.
• Reformed reading: This reading emphasizes that God is the one who gives the new heart and that obedience follows as its result ("that they may walk"). On this basis it holds that regeneration (being born again) is a work of God that precedes human decision.
• Wesleyan–Arminian reading: This reading agrees that grace comes first. It also points, however, to Ezekiel 18:31, where the people are urged to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit. It therefore holds that God's grace enables the human response without replacing it (prevenient grace).
• Reading as national restoration: Dispensationalism holds that the promise includes something yet to be fulfilled for the nation of Israel. Covenant theology tends to read it as fulfilled in the church in Christ.

Debates and Issues

• The order of regeneration: The question of whether God first gives the new heart or whether human repentance and response work together with it is treated as one strand of the debate over predestination and free will.
• Textual issues: "One heart" is the reading of the Hebrew. Some ancient translations and manuscripts, including the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation), are reported to read "another heart" or "a new heart." The New Korean Revised Version renders "new spirit" with the modern Korean word yeong in place of sin.
• Citation out of context: Some observe that when the passage is cited solely as a text about individual inner transformation, two things are lost: that it is a promise of restoration addressed to the exilic community as a whole, and that it is immediately followed by the warning of judgment in verse 21.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church the passage is cited, together with Ezekiel 36:26, in sermons on conversion, repentance, and the renewal of the heart. The contrast between the "hard heart" and the "soft heart" is a common expression in preaching.

Related Passages

• Ezekiel 36:26–27
• Ezekiel 18:31
• Jeremiah 31:33
• Jeremiah 32:39
• 2 Corinthians 3:3