V. 8.— Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Men not listening to the voice of God proceeds from the hardness of their hearts, which, as appears from the conduct of the Israelites, will too frequently neither be melted by kindness nor subdued by suffering. Israel’ s conduct in the wilderness was a tissue of provocations. The object which God had in view in all His dealings with them was to humble them and to prove them, and to know what was in their hearts, whether they would keep his commandments or no. Deuteronomy 8:3. Now the Apostle warns the Hebrew believers by their example not to harden their hearts and provoke God, as their fathers had done in the wilderness, in the day of temptation.