Bible Strands
Psalms 95:8
do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the assembled congregation of Israel, shifting from an invitation to worship (v. 6) to a warning framed by "today, if you hear His voice" (v. 7). The moment is a corporate call to respond to God's present speech, not merely to recall past events.
The words — תַּקְשׁוּ (tak.Shu, H7185) is the imperative "you harden," from a root meaning to become stiff or unyielding — the heart treated as a material that can be set. מַ֝סָּ֗ה (ma.Sah, H4532) means "test" or "try," naming the place by the act committed there.
The thread — The event is recorded at Exodus 17:1–7 and Numbers 20:13; Hebrews 3:8 quotes this verse nearly verbatim in a warning to the church.
Why it lands — It identifies the failure not as a single act of rebellion but as a posture: a heart that has grown stiff toward God's voice. The reader is asked to check whether hearing still produces response, or whether it has become background noise.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Cross-references
- Exodus 17:7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
- Hebrews 3:8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,
- Numbers 20:13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD, and He showed His holiness among them.
- Numbers 14:11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?
- Numbers 14:22 not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—
- Hebrews 3:15 As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
- Deuteronomy 6:16 Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.
- 1 Samuel 6:6 Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?