Isaiah 29:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 29:11
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
a word · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
book
הַסֵּ֣פֶרha.Se.fer
H5612
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sealed
הֶֽחָתוּם֒he.cha.Tum
H2856
to close up · definite article + verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
deliver
יִתְּנ֣וּyi.te.Nu
H5414
to give · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
learned
יוֹדֵ֥עַyo.De.a'
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
saying
לֵאמֹ֖רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Read
קְרָ֣אke.Ra'
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
saith
וְאָמַר֙ve.'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
cannot
אוּכַ֔ל'u.Khal
H3201
to be able · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
sealed
חָת֖וּםcha.Tum
H2856
to close up · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be inc…
Daniel 12:9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and…
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father wh…
Revelation 5:1-9 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
Revelation 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 29:9-16
Here, I. The prophet stands amazed at the stupidity of the greatest part of the Jewish nation. They had Levites, who taught the good knowledge of the Lord and had encouragement from Hezekiah in doing so, Ch2 30:22. They had prophets, who brought them messages immediately from God, and signified to them what were the causes and what would be the effects of God's displeasure against them. Now, one would think, surely this great nation, that has all the advantages of divine revelation, is a wise and understanding people, Deu 4:6. But, alas! it was quite otherwise, Isa 29:9. The prophet addresses himself to the sober thinking part of them, calling upon them to be affected with the general carele…
of all--rather, "the whole vision." "Vision" is the same here as "revelation," or "law"; in Isa 28:15, the same Hebrew word is translated, "covenant" [MAURER].
sealed-- (Isa 8:16), God seals up the truth so that even the learned, because they lack believing docility, cannot discern it (Mat 13:10-17; Mat 11:25). Prophecy remained comparatively a sealed volume (Dan 12:4, Dan 12:9), until Jesus, who "alone is worthy," "opened the seals" (Rev 5:1-5, Rev 5:9; Rev 6:1).
John Gill on Isaiah 29:11
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed,.... The prophecies of all the prophets contained in the Scriptures; or all the prophecies in the book of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, were no more seen, known, and understood, both by the priests and the people, than if they had been in a book, written, rolled up, and sealed. And this was owing, not to the obscurity of these writings, or because they were really sealed up, but to the blindness and stupidity of the people, whose eyes were closed, and their heads covered; and the prophecies of the Scriptures were only so to them, "unto you", not unto others; not to the apostles of Christ, whose understandings we…
This is also why Isaiah would say to the Jews: "Behold, all of these words will be to you like the words of a sealed book." The skilled reader and the illiterate are equally said to be deprived of fruit, since one is prevented by the seal from penetrating what lies hidden within and the other is shackled by ignorance.
Isaiah [prophesied] that the Jews would not understand the holy Scriptures, but that they would become intelligible in the last times, after Christ had come: "And all these words shall be to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which, if you shall give to a man that knows letters to read, he shall say, I cannot read, for it is sealed.… But in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and they who are in darkness and in a cloud; the eyes of the blind shall see."
And that the things spoken of old by the law and the prophets were all sealed, and that they were unknown to people, Isaiah declares when he says, "And they will deliver the book that is sealed to one that is learned, and will say to him, 'Read this;' and he will say, 'I cannot read it, for it is sealed.' " It was right and necessary that the things spoken of old by the prophets should be sealed to the unbelieving Pharisees, who thought that they understood the letter of the law, and be opened to the believing. The things, therefore, which of old were sealed, are now by the grace of God the Lord all open to the saints.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Book — This word has a comprehensive meaning in Scripture. In the Old Testament it is the rendering of the Hebrew word sepher, which properly means a “writing,” and then a “volume” (Ex. 17:14; Deut. 28:58;…
Sennacherib — Sin (the god) sends many brothers, son of Sargon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (B.C. 705), in the 23rd year of Hezekiah. “Like the Persian Xerxes, he was weak and vainglorious, cowardly…
Writing — The art of writing must have been known in the time of the early Pharaohs. Moses is commanded “to write for a memorial in a book” (Ex. 17:14) a record of the attack of Amalek. Frequent mention is…
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Books · Often sealed — Often sealed
Reprobacy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Isaiah 29:11-12
Therefore every vision hath become to you. The Prophet expresses still more clearly what he had formerly said, that the blindness of the Jews will be so great that, though the Lord enlightens them by the clearest light of his word, they will understand nothing. Nor does he mean that this will happen to the common people alone, but even to the rulers and teachers, who ought to have been wiser than others, and to have held out an example to them. [268] In short, he means that this stupidity will pervade all ranks; for both "learned and unlearned," he declares, will be so dull and stupid as to be altogether dazzled by the word of God, and to see no more in it than in a "sealed letter." He makes…
This enigma of the future the prophet holds out before the eyes of his contemporaries. The prophet received it by revelation of Jehovah; and without the illumination of Jehovah it could not possibly be understood. The deep degradation of Ariel, the wonderful deliverance, the sudden elevation from the abyss to this lofty height - all this was a matter of faith. But this faith was just what the nation wanted, and therefore the understanding depending upon it was wanting also. The shemu‛âh was there, but the bı̄nâh was absent; and all שׁמועה הבין was wrecked on the obtuseness of the mass. The prophet, therefore, who had received the unhappy calling to harden his people, could not help exclaim…
a spirit of deep sleep: The people’s folly was reinforced by God’s judgment on them (cp. Rom 1:24-32; 11:8); they had no perception of reality. • Prophets were also sometimes called visionaries. Neither the people nor their prophets would understand what God was doing (Isa 6:9-10).
Rashi on Isaiah 29:11
the vision of everything All that you used to see in the constellations shall be concealed from you like the words of a letter sealed with wax, which, if they give to read one able to read a letter, he will say, “I cannot, for I see not what is inside, for it is sealed.”
