Texts in Conversation
Psalm 7 and the Wisdom of Solomon describe God “examining” the heart and kidneys, reflecting an ancient belief that the kidneys are a source of thought and emotion. This is used to show that divine judgment reaches the inner person.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 7:9
Hebrew Bible
8 The Lord judges the nations. Vindicate me, Lord, because I am innocent, because I am blameless, O Exalted One. 9 May the evil deeds of the wicked come to an end. But make the innocent secure, O righteous God, you who examine hearts and kidneys32. 10 The Exalted God is my shield, the one who delivers the morally upright.
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 1:6
Deuterocanon
5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. 6 For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. 7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The position of the kidneys in the body makes them particularly inaccessible, and in cutting up an animal they are the last organs to be reached. Consequently, they were a natural symbol for the most hidden part of a man (Psalm 139:13), and in Job 16:13 to "cleave the kidneys asunder" is to effect the total destruction of the individual (compare Job 19:27; Lamentations 3:13). This hidden location, coupled with the sacred sacrificial use, caused the kidneys to be thought of as the seat of the innermost moral (and emotional) impulses. So the kidneys instruct (Psalm 16:7) or are "pricked" (Psalm 73:21), and God can be said to be far from the kidneys of sinners (Jeremiah 12:2). In all of these passages "conscience" gives the exact meaning. So the kidneys rejoice (Proverbs 23:16), cause torment (2 Esdras 5:34), or tremble in wrath (1 Maccabees 2:24). And to "know" or "try the kidneys" (usually joined with "the heart") is an essential power of God's, denoting His complete knowledge of the nature of every human being (Psalm 7:9; 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10; 20:12; Wisdom of Solomon 1:6; Revelation 2:23) ..."
Burton Scott Easton, “Kidneys,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr et al. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1979), 577–578.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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