Ezekiel 11:19

(19) One heart.—Unity of purpose among the restored exiles was to be at once a consequence and a condition of their improved moral condition. The opposite evil is spoken of as one of the sins of the people in Isaiah 53:6 : We have turned every one to his own way.” Self-will, which leads to division, and submission to God’s will are necessarily contradictory terms. Hence the corresponding promise in Jeremiah 32:39 : “I will give them one heart and one way,” and the blessed realisation of this, described in the first fervency of the early Church (Acts 4:32): “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.”

Stony heart . . . heart of flesh.—This phraseology is peculiar to Ezekiel, but the same thing is often described in other terms. The figure here seems to be that of a stony heart as unnatural, in the higher sense of that word, unfitting, and incongruous; this is to be removed, and in its place is to be substituted “an heart of flesh “—one that can be moved by the Divine appeals, and is suitable to the whole being and condition of the people. (Comp. Ezekiel 36:26.) The effect of this change will be obedience to the Divine will, and consequently a realisation of the covenant relation in a fellowship with God.