Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Circumcise. The Hebrews esteem circumcision as a mark of their greatest glory. All who had it not were looked upon as profane. They call the ears, mind, and heart uncircumcised, when they would not hear, understand, or obey the law of God. Saint Paul (Romans 2:28) frequently inculcates this interior circumcision, to which Moses alludes in these his last exhortations. Calmet. 30:6. The people had not regularly practised circumcision in the desert. Moses takes care to raise their thoughts to something more spiritual; and declares, in clearer terms than he had hitherto done, the necessity of loving God. All must be banished from the heart which might resist this love. Calmet.—Vanity, blindness, luxury, must be retrenched. Menochius.