The Hebrew verb qashah (קָשָׁה) means to be hard, severe, difficult, or stubborn. The related adjective qasheh describes what is harsh, fierce, or unyielding. This root appears about 30 times and is used both of physical hardship and of the hardness of the human heart in spiritual resistance.
Qashah most powerfully describes the hardened heart that refuses God. The phrase 'stiff-necked people' (am qesheh oref) — literally 'a people of hard neck' — appears repeatedly in Exodus and Deuteronomy to describe Israel's stubbornness at Sinai and in the wilderness. Like a draft animal that stiffens its neck against the yoke, a qasheh people resist God's direction. This hardening is not merely cognitive but volitional — a choice to remain unmoved by God's grace. The theological antidote is the 'new heart' promised in Ezekiel 36:26, where God replaces the 'heart of stone' (which could be called a qasheh heart) with a heart of flesh.