The term "stiff-necked" is an idiom used in the Bible to describe people who keep disobeying God and refuse to repent. Such people are very proud and will not submit to God's authority.
* Similarly, the term "stubborn" describes a person who refuses to change his mind or actions even when urged to do so. Stubborn people will not listen to good advice or warnings that other people give them.
* The Old Testament described the Israelites as "stiff-necked" because they did not listen to the many messages from God's prophets who urged them to repent and turn back to Yahweh.
* If a neck is "stiff" it does not bend easily. The project language may have a different idiom that communicates that a person is "unbending" in that he refuses to change his ways.
* Other ways to translate this term could include "pridefully stubborn" or "arrogant and unyielding" or "refusing to change."