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:
Ver. 19. And I will give them one heart.] Opposed to a "divided heart," such as the Paphlagonian partridges are said to have; Hos 10:2 that is, partly for God, and partly for the world. Eze 33:31 This oneness of heart truly and entirely cleaving to God alone, is that boon that David so dearly beggeth, Psa 86:11 that he might attend upon God without distraction. 1Co 7:35 And as the visible beams are wholly bent upon the thing that is beheld by the eye, and as it were concentred in it, a so might his desires and endeavours be entirely carried toward God, and firmly fixed upon him.
And I will put a new spirit within you.] The same soul for substance, but altered in the frame, renewed in the qualities thereof. Mar 16:17 They shall "speak with new tongues"; so we read of a "new song"; the strings are the same, but the tune is changed. See Psa 51:12 Eph 4:23 2 Corinthians 5:17 .
And I will take away the stony heart.] Extraham, say the Septuagint. I will draw or pull it out, which none can do but the hand of Heaven. God only can make the flinty heart fleshly, that is, sensible, soft, pliant, penetrable, buxom, and obedient to his holy will.
a Plin., lib. xi. cap. 37.