Passage

Ezekiel 36.26

Book: Ezekiel · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"24. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."

"26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

"27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:24-28, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"24. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."

"26. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

"27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them. 28. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:24-28, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."

"26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."

"27. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:24-28, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"24. And I have taken you out of the nations, And have gathered you out of all the lands, And I have brought you in unto your land, 25. And I have sprinkled over you clean water, And ye have been clean; From all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, I do cleanse you."

"26. And I have given to you a new heart, And a new spirit I give in your midst, And I have turned aside the heart of stone out of your flesh, And I have given to you a heart of flesh."

"27. And My Spirit I give in your midst, And I have done this, so that in My statutes ye walk, And My judgments ye keep, and have done them. 28. And ye have dwelt in the land that I have given to your fathers, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I, I am to you for God." (Ezekiel 36:24-28, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: YHWH, through the prophet Ezekiel
Audience: the Judean exiles in Babylon; the future restored covenant community is the eschatological referent
Location: Tel-Abib by the Chebar canal, Babylonian exile (Ezek 1:1-3; 3:15)
Time period: the early exile, c. 593-571 BC

Theological reading

Ezek 36:26 is the second great OT prophecy of the New Covenant (alongside Jeremiah 31.33) and the most graphic anatomical metaphor in Scripture for the transformation Christian theology calls regeneration. The Hebrew uses the shorter form lev (the biform of H3824 - lebab) and pairs it with ruach (spirit / breath): YHWH will give a new lev, put a new ruach within His people, remove the lev of stone, and replace it with a lev of flesh. Verse 27 names the agent: "I will put my Spirit (Ruach) within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." The promise is comprehensive, cleansing (v. 25, with the water-sprinkling image), new inner-self (v. 26), divine-Spirit indwelling (v. 27), restored covenant relationship (v. 28).

The structural relationship to Jer 31:33 is precise: where Jeremiah names the inscription of the law on the lev, Ezekiel names the transplant of the lev itself. They are two angles on the same prophesied work. The NT identifies both as fulfilled in Christian regeneration: John 3:5 ("except a man be born of water and of the Spirit"), deliberately echoing Ezek 36:25-27's water-and-Spirit pairing; Titus 3:5 ("the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit"); 2 Cor 5:17 ("if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature"); Rom 8:9-11 (the Spirit of God dwelling in believers).

The verse is foundational for several Reformed doctrines:

Monergistic regeneration, God transplants the heart; the lev of stone cannot transplant itself
Total depravity, the natural condition is lev of stone, requiring a divine work
The internal call, the new heart is given by sovereign divine action, not by human cooperation
Sanctification, the new heart produces obedience (v. 27, "cause you to walk in my statutes") as the organic-expression of the renewed inner self

Patristic-medieval engagement (Augustine especially in De Spiritu et Littera) deploys this text against Pelagianism: a will that can self-generate the obedience God demands does not need a new heart of flesh. The Reformation makes Ezek 36:26 a central proof-text for monergism (Calvin, Institutes II.3.6-14; II.5.4-5).

Key words

H3820 - lev, lev (Strong's H3820, the shorter biform of H3824 - lebab). Used four times in this verse alone, the heart of stone, the heart of flesh.

Quoted in

Notes

Stub. Promote to rich hub when warranted.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.