Isaiah 6:10

6:10 Make the hearts of these people calloused;

make their ears deaf and their eyes blind!

Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.” ¹ 

Isaiah 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ²  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ³ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ⁴ 

Isaiah 19:17

19:17 The land of Judah will humiliate Egypt. Everyone who hears about Judah will be afraid because of what the Lord who commands armies is planning to do to them. ⁵ 

Isaiah 23:15

23:15 At that time ⁶  Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, ⁷  the typical life span of a king. ⁸  At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: ⁹ 

Isaiah 31:2

31:2 Yet he too is wise ¹⁰  and he will bring disaster;

he does not retract his decree. ¹¹ 

He will attack the wicked nation, ¹² 

and the nation that helps ¹³  those who commit sin. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 37:7

37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹⁵  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹⁶  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ¹⁷  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ¹⁸  and how I have carried out your will.” ¹⁹  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 47:10

47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; ²¹ 

you thought, ²²  ‘No one sees me.’

Your self-professed ²³  wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,

when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ ²⁴ 

Isaiah 47:13

47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ²⁵ 

Let them take their stand –

the ones who see omens in the sky,

who gaze at the stars,

who make monthly predictions –

let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ²⁶ 

Isaiah 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ²⁷  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ²⁸ 

Isaiah 57:11

57:11 Whom are you worried about?

Whom do you fear, that you would act so deceitfully

and not remember me

or think about me? ²⁹ 

Because I have been silent for so long, ³⁰ 

you are not afraid of me. ³¹ 

Isaiah 64:5

64:5 You assist ³²  those who delight in doing what is right, ³³ 

who observe your commandments. ³⁴ 

Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.

How then can we be saved? ³⁵ 

[6:10]  ¹ sn Do we take this commission at face value? Does the Lord really want to prevent his people from understanding, repenting, and being healed? Verse 9, which ostensibly records the content of Isaiah’s message, is clearly ironic. As far as we know, Isaiah did not literally proclaim these exact words. The Hebrew imperatival forms are employed rhetorically and anticipate the response Isaiah will receive. When all is said and done, Isaiah might as well preface and conclude every message with these ironic words, which, though imperatival in form, might be paraphrased as follows: “You continually hear, but don’t understand; you continually see, but don’t perceive.” Isaiah might as well command them to be spiritually insensitive, because, as the preceding and following chapters make clear, the people are bent on that anyway. (This ironic command is comparable to saying to a particularly recalcitrant individual, “Go ahead, be stubborn!”) Verse 10b is also clearly sarcastic. On the surface it seems to indicate Isaiah’s hardening ministry will prevent genuine repentance. But, as the surrounding chapters clearly reveal, the people were hardly ready or willing to repent. Therefore, Isaiah’s preaching was not needed to prevent repentance! Verse 10b reflects the people’s attitude and might be paraphrased accordingly: “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their mind, repent, and be restored, and they certainly wouldn’t want that, would they?” Of course, this sarcastic statement may also reveal that the Lord himself is now bent on judgment, not reconciliation. Just as Pharaoh’s rejection of Yahweh’s ultimatum ignited judgment and foreclosed, at least temporarily, any opportunity for repentance, so the Lord may have come to the point where he has decreed to bring judgment before opening the door for repentance once more. The sarcastic statement in verse 10b would be an emphatic way of making this clear. (Perhaps we could expand our paraphrase: “Otherwise they might…repent, and be restored, and they certainly wouldn’t want that, would they? Besides, it’s too late for that!”) Within this sarcastic framework, verse 10a must also be seen as ironic. As in verse 9 the imperatival forms should be taken as rhetorical and as anticipating the people’s response. One might paraphrase: “Your preaching will desensitize the minds of these people, make their hearing dull, and blind their eyes.” From the outset the Lord might as well command Isaiah to harden the people, because his preaching will end up having that effect. Despite the use of irony, we should still view this as a genuine, albeit indirect, act of divine hardening. After all, God did not have to send Isaiah. By sending him, he drives the sinful people further from him, for Isaiah’s preaching, which focuses on the Lord’s covenantal demands and impending judgment upon covenantal rebellion, forces the people to confront their sin and then continues to desensitize them as they respond negatively to the message. As in the case of Pharaoh, Yahweh’s hardening is not arbitrarily imposed on a righteous or even morally neutral object. Rather his hardening is an element of his righteous judgment on recalcitrant sinners. Ironically, Israel’s rejection of prophetic preaching in turn expedites disciplinary punishment, and brings the battered people to a point where they might be ready for reconciliation. The prophesied judgment (cf. 6:11-13) was fulfilled by 701 b.c. when the Assyrians devastated the land (a situation presupposed by Isa 1:2-20; see especially vv. 4-9). At that time the divine hardening had run its course and Isaiah is able to issue an ultimatum (1:19-20), one which Hezekiah apparently took to heart, resulting in the sparing of Jerusalem (see Isa 36-39 and cf. Jer 26:18-19 with Mic 3:12).This interpretation, which holds in balance both Israel’s moral responsibility and the Lord’s sovereign work among his people, is consistent with other pertinent texts both within and outside the Book of Isaiah. Isa 3:9 declares that the people of Judah “have brought disaster upon themselves,” but Isa 29:9-10 indicates that the Lord was involved to some degree in desensitizing the people. Zech 7:11-12 looks back to the pre-exilic era (cf. v. 7) and observes that the earlier generations stubbornly hardened their hearts, but Ps 81:11-12, recalling this same period, states that the Lord “gave them over to their stubborn hearts.”

[17:10]  ² tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ³ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[19:17]  ³ tn Heb “and the land of Judah will become [a source of] shame to Egypt, everyone to whom one mentions it [i.e., the land of Judah] will fear because of the plan of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] which he is planning against him.”

[23:15]  ⁴ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[23:15]  ⁵ sn The number seventy is probably used in a stereotypical, nonliteral sense here to indicate a long period of time that satisfies completely the demands of God’s judgment.

[23:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the days of a king.”

[23:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”

[31:2]  ⁵ sn This statement appears to have a sarcastic tone. The royal advisers who are advocating an alliance with Egypt think they are wise, but the Lord possesses wisdom as well and will thwart their efforts.

[31:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he does not turn aside [i.e., “retract”] his words”; NIV “does not take back his words.”

[31:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he will arise against the house of the wicked.”

[31:2]  ⁸ sn That is, Egypt.

[31:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and against the help of the doers of sin.”

[37:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[37:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[38:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[47:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”

[47:10]  ⁹ tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”

[47:10]  ¹⁰ tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[47:10]  ¹¹ tn See the note at v. 8.

[47:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”

[47:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”

[54:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ¹¹ tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

[57:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you do not place [it] on your heart.”

[57:11]  ¹² tn Heb “Is it not [because] I have been silent, and from long ago?”

[57:11]  ¹³ sn God’s patience with sinful Israel has caused them to think that they can sin with impunity and suffer no consequences.

[64:5]  ¹² tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”

[64:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”

[64:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”

[64:5]  ¹⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).