Isaiah 6:10

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
heart	לֵב lev-	H3820	the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct
people	הָעָ֣ם ha.'Am	H5971	a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fat	הַשְׁמֵן֙ hash.Men	H8080	to shine · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
ears	וְאָזְנָ֥יו ve.'a.ze.Nav	H241	broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
heavy	הַכְבֵּ֖ד hakh.Bed	H3513	to be heavy · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
shut	הָשַׁ֑ע ha.Sha'	H8173	(in a good acceptation) to look upon (with complacency) · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
eyes	וְעֵינָ֣יו ve.'ei.Nav	H5869	an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
see	יִרְאֶ֨ה yir.'Eh	H7200	to see · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
eyes	בְעֵינָ֜יו ve.'ei.Nav	H5869	an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hear	יִשְׁמָ֗ע yish.Ma'	H8085	to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ears	וּבְאָזְנָ֣יו u.ve.'a.ze.Nav	H241	broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
understand	יָבִ֛ין ya.Vin	H995	to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heart	וּלְבָב֥וֹ u.le.va.Vo	H3824	the heart (as the most interior organ) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
convert	וָשָׁ֖ב va.Shav	H7725	to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
healed	וְרָ֥פָא ve.Ra.fa'	H7495	properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular

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 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should se…
Acts 28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with…
Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word o…
John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
Isaiah 29:10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he c…
Isaiah 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:9–end

God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand - to foretel the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for that ruin - to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgment…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 6:10

Make . . . fat-- (Psa 119:17). "Render them the more hardened by thy warnings" [MAURER]. This effect is the fruit, not of the truth in itself, but of the corrupt state of their hearts, to which God here judicially gives them over (Isa 63:17). GESENIUS takes the imperatives as futures. "Proclaim truths, the result of which proclamation will be their becoming the more hardened" (Rom 1:28; Eph 4:18); but this does not so well as the former set forth God as designedly giving up sinners to judicial hardening (Rom 11:8; Th2 2:11). In the first member of the sentence, the order is, the heart, ears, eyes; in the latter, the reverse order, the eyes, ears, heart. It is from the heart that corruption f…

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John Gill on Isaiah 6:10

Make the heart of this people fat,.... Gross and heavy, stupid and unteachable, hard and obdurate; which is sometimes done by the preaching of the Gospel, through the wickedness of man's heart, that being the savour of death unto death to some, just as the sun hardens the clay; or declare that their hearts are thus gross and stupid; or that I will give them up to a judicial hardness of heart: and make their ears heavy: that they cannot hear the word, so as to understand it; they having stopped the ear, and plucked away the shoulder, it is in righteous judgment that they are given up to such an insensibility as not to be capable of hearing and understanding what is delivered in the ministry…

The Church Fathers

Behold mercy and judgment: mercy upon the elect, who have obtained the justice of God, but judgment upon the others who have been blinded. And yet the former have believed, because they have willed, while the latter have not believed, because they have not willed. Hence mercy and judgment were brought about in their own wills. Clearly this election is through grace, not at all through merits.
— Augustine of Hippo, PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 6

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

Blind — Blind beggars are frequently mentioned (Matt. 9:27; 12:22; 20:30; John 5:3). The blind are to be treated with compassion (Lev. 19:14; Deut. 27:18). Blindness was sometimes a punishment for…
Ear — Used frequently in a figurative sense (Ps. 34:15). To “uncover the ear” is to show respect to a person (1 Sam. 20:2 marg.). To have the “ear heavy”, or to have “uncircumcised ears” (Isa. 6:10), is to…
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Deafness · .Of moral insensibility — .Of moral insensibility
Ear, The · God: Judicially closed — God: Judicially closed
Heart, Character Of The Unrenewed · Often judicially stupefied — Often judicially stupefied
Holy Spirit, The, Is God · As Jehovah of hosts — As Jehovah of hosts
Quotations And Allusions · with — with
Reprobacy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Unbelief · 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).

Isaiah 6:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:9–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 6:10

John Gill on Isaiah 6:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 6:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:9–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 6:10

John Gill on Isaiah 6:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Isaiah 6:10

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 6:9-10

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 6:10

Rashi on Isaiah 6:10