to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
understood
יָבִ֑ינוּya.Vi.nu
H995
to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
shut
טַ֤חtach
H2902
to smear · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
eyes
עֵֽינֵיהֶ֔ם'ei.nei.Hem
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
see
מֵֽרְאוֹת֙me.re.'Ot
H7200
to see · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
hearts
לִבָּהlibbâh
H3826
the heart
understand
מֵהַשְׂכִּ֖ילme.has.Kil
H7919
to be (causatively · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
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
Isaiah 6:9-10 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
John 12:39-40 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Proverbs 2:5-9 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
Matthew 13:14-15 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 44:9-20
Often before, God, by the prophet, had mentioned the folly and strange sottishness of idolaters; but here he enlarges upon that head, and very fully and particularly exposes them to contempt and ridicule. This discourse is intended, 1. To arm the people of Israel against the strong temptation they would be in to worship idols when they were captives in Babylon, in compliance with the custom of the country (they being far from the city of their own solemnities) and to humour those who were now their lords and masters. 2. To cure them of their inclination to idolatry, which was the sin that did most easily beset them and to reform them from which they were sent into Babylon. As the rod of God…
he, &c.--God hath given them over to judicial blindness; not His direct physical, but His providential agency in administering His moral government, is meant (Isa 6:9-10). "Shut," literally, "daubed," plastered up; it is an Eastern custom in some cases to seal up the eyes of offenders.
John Gill on Isaiah 44:18
They have not known nor understood,.... Who the true God is, nor the worship that is due to him alone; they do not know nor understand divine and spiritual things; nay, they have not the knowledge and understanding of men; they want common sense that can do and say such things as before mentioned, both idol makers and idol worshippers:
for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their heart that they cannot understand; either the devil, as some think, the god of this world, that blinds their eyes from seeing the folly of such gross idolatry, which he, deceiving them, leads them into; or rather God himself, who, because they like not to retain him in their knowledge, gives them up…
They have not known or understood. He concludes that it is impossible that men endued with reason should have fallen into this mistake, if they had not been altogether blind and mad; for if any spark of reason had remained in them, they would have seen how absurd and ridiculous it is to adore a part of that wood which they had burned, and which they had seen with their own eyes consumed and reduced to ashes. But when they perceive nothing, and listen to no arguments, they shew that they have actually degenerated into beasts; for the expression which Isaiah uses in reproaching them, "They have not known," amounts to a declaration that they are bereft of reason, and have lost all understanding…
The Church Fathers
Whatever is said about idols can also be applied to the leaders of heresies, who create images of their doctrines and lies with cunning hearts and worship things that they know are made by themselves. And their own error is not enough for them, unless they deceive even the simplest of their followers with their worship. Those who think that gain is godliness and devour the homes of widows (I Tim. VI), taking advantage of the ignorance of the common people, in this way, with dialectic art, as if with an axe and drill, they shape their own god, and they forge with a hammer, and they gild with the elegance of rhetorical language: of whom their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame (Philipp. III).
The wise and eloquent people among the pagans are full of admiration for a well-turned phrase. One of their main preoccupations is with elegance of expression. They are filled with the greatest enthusiasm for good style and take great pride in verbal dexterity. The base material of their poets is merely lies fashioned in rhythms and meters for grace and harmony, but for truth they have little if any regard. I would say that they are sick from the lack of any true or proper notion of the nature and reality of God.… And God said of them through the voice of Isaiah, "Know that their hearts are dust and that they have erred." … As for the inventors of impure heresies, those profaners and apostates who have opened their mouths against the divine glory, "those who have uttered perverted things," we could accuse them of having slipped in their madness as low as the foolish pagans; perhaps they have slipped even lower, for it would have been better never to have known the way of sacred truth than once to have known it, to have turned away from the sacred commandment that was handed on to them.
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
Idol — (1.) Heb. aven, “nothingness;” “vanity” (Isa. 66:3; 41:29; Deut. 32:21; 1 Kings 16:13; Ps. 31:6; Jer. 8:19, etc.). (2.) ‘Elil, “a thing of naught” (Ps. 97:7; Isa. 19:3); a word of contempt, used of…
Idolatry · Making idols for the purpose of, described and ridiculed — Making idols for the purpose of, described and ridiculed
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).
So irrational is idolatry; but yet, through self-hardening, they have fallen under the judgment of hardness of heart (Isa 6:9-10; Isa 19:3; Isa 29:10), and have been given up to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28). "They perceive not, and do not understand: for their eyes are smeared over, so that they do not see; their hearts, so that they do not understand. And men take it not to heart, no perception and no understanding, that men should say, The half of it I have burned in the fire, and also baked bread upon the coals thereof; roasted flesh, and eaten: and ought I to make the rest of it an abomination, to fall down before the produce of a tree?" Instead of טח, Lev 14:42, the third person is writt…
Their minds are shut: Idol worshipers cannot see the irony in using one part of a log to warm themselves and another part of the same log to be their god.
Rashi on Isaiah 44:15
And it was for man to ignite And part of that very tree was for man’s necessities, [viz.] to ignite.
and he took from the trees. and he warmed his body opposite them.
he even heated an oven with them and baked bread.
he even made a God from what was left over.
