📖 Biblical Definition
Leb (לֵב) — or levav — is the Hebrew word for heart, but vastly broader than the modern English emotional sense. The leb is the integrated inner core of the person — the seat of thought, will, conscience, memory, decision, intention, and (yes) emotion. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19): the catalogue is moral and volitional, not merely affective. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). The great command of the Shema is to love the LORD "with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). The whole man, from the inside.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Hebrew "heart" — the integrated inner core of the person.
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The Hebrew word for heart (leb, or the doubled emphatic form lebab) is the integrated seat of inner life: thought, will, conscience, memory, decision, affection. Where modern English splits "heart" (feelings) from "mind" (thought), Hebrew unites them in leb. To love YHWH "with all thy heart" (Deut 6:5) is to love Him with the integrated inner self — thinking, willing, remembering, deciding, feeling all toward Him.
📖 Key Scripture
Deuteronomy 6:5 — "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
Proverbs 4:23 — "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
Jeremiah 17:9 — "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern English splits heart (feelings) from mind (thought); Hebrew leb unites them, and the modern split distorts the biblical anthropology.
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Pop usage of "follow your heart" treats the heart as feelings-organ to be obeyed. Hebrew leb includes the will, the conscience, and the deliberative reasoning — and Jeremiah 17:9 warns that this integrated core is deceitful and desperately wicked. Following your leb uncritically is bad counsel.
Recover the integration: when Scripture says "with all thy heart" it means with the whole inner person — not just feelings. The heart is what God renews ("a new heart will I give you," Ezek 36:26), and the renewal touches every faculty.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew leb, lebab.
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['Hebrew', 'H3820', 'leb', 'heart, inner self']
['Hebrew', 'H3824', 'lebab', 'heart (emphatic)']
Usage
"Heart (leb) is thought + will + conscience + feeling."
"Don't follow your leb uncritically; let it be renewed."
"Love God with the integrated inner self."