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 55:7

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ² 

and sinful people their plans. ³ 

They should return ⁴  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ⁵ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ⁶ 

Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ⁷ 

Amos 4:6-12

4:6 “But surely I gave ⁸  you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live. ⁹ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ¹⁰ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ¹¹  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ¹²  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ¹³  water,

but remained thirsty. ¹⁴ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ¹⁵  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ¹⁶  devouring your orchards, ¹⁷  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹⁸ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ¹⁹  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God ²⁰  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²¹ 

You were like a burning stick ²²  snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel! ²³ 

Acts 26:17-20

26:17 I will rescue ²⁴  you from your own people ²⁵  and from the Gentiles, to whom ²⁶  I am sending you 26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn ²⁷  from darkness to light and from the power ²⁸  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ²⁹  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

26:19 “Therefore, King Agrippa, ³⁰  I was not disobedient ³¹  to the heavenly ³²  vision, 26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ³³  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ³⁴  performing deeds consistent with ³⁵  repentance.

Acts 28:26-27

28:26 when he said,

‘Go to this people and say,

“You will keep on hearing, ³⁶  but will never understand,

and you will keep on looking, ³⁷  but will never perceive.

28:27 For the heart of this people has become dull, ³⁸ 

and their ears are hard of hearing, ³⁹ 

and they have closed their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their heart

and turn, ⁴⁰  and I would heal them.”’ ⁴¹ 

[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.”

[55:7]  ² tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ³ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ⁵ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ⁶ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[14:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”

[4:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).

[4:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.

[4:7]  ¹⁰ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ¹² tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ¹⁶ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “gardens.”

[4:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[4:11]  ²⁰ tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

[4:11]  ²² tn Heb “like that which is burning.”

[4:12]  ²³ tn The Lord appears to announce a culminating judgment resulting from Israel’s obstinate refusal to repent. The following verse describes the Lord in his role as sovereign judge, but it does not outline the judgment per se. For this reason F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 450) take the prefixed verbal forms as preterites referring to the series of judgments detailed in vv. 6-11. It is more likely that a coming judgment is in view, but that its details are omitted for rhetorical effect, creating a degree of suspense (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 149-50) that will find its solution in chapter 5. This line is an ironic conclusion to the section begun at 4:4. Israel thought they were meeting the Lord at the sanctuaries, yet they actually had misunderstood how he had been trying to bring them back to himself. Now Israel would truly meet the Lord – not at the sanctuaries, but face-to-face in judgment.

[26:17]  ²⁴ tn Grk “rescuing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the participle ἐξαιρούμενος (exairoumeno") has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 17.

[26:17]  ²⁵ tn That is, from the Jewish people. Grk “the people”; the words “your own” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[26:17]  ²⁶ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably both the Jews (“your own people”) and the Gentiles, indicating the comprehensive commission Paul received.

[26:18]  ²⁷ sn To open their eyes so that they turn… Here is Luke’s most comprehensive report of Paul’s divine calling. His role was to call humanity to change their position before God and experience God’s forgiveness as a part of God’s family. The image of turning is a key one in the NT: Luke 1:79; Rom 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8; Col 1:12; 1 Thess 5:5. See also Luke 1:77-79; 3:3; 24:47.

[26:18]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 352-53 s.v. ἐξουσία 2 states, “Also of Satan’s power Ac 26:18.” It is also possible to translate this “the domain of Satan” (cf. BDAG 353 s.v. 6)

[26:18]  ²⁹ tn Or “and an inheritance.”

[26:19]  ³⁰ sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.

[26:19]  ³¹ sn I was not disobedient. Paul’s defense is that he merely obeyed the risen Jesus. He was arrested for obeying heavenly direction and preaching the opportunity to turn to God.

[26:19]  ³² tn According to L&N 1.5, “In Ac 26:19 the adjective οὐράνιος could be interpreted as being related simply to the meaning of οὐρανός^a ‘sky,’ but it seems preferable to regard οὐράνιος in this context as meaning simply ‘from heaven’ or ‘heavenly.’”

[26:20]  ³³ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ³⁴ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ³⁵ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.

[28:26]  ³⁶ tn Grk “you will hear with hearing” (an idiom).

[28:26]  ³⁷ tn Or “seeing”; Grk “you will look by looking” (an idiom).

[28:27]  ³⁸ tn Or “insensitive.”

[28:27]  ³⁹ tn Grk “they hear heavily with their ears” (an idiom for slow comprehension).

[28:27]  ⁴⁰ sn Note how the failure to respond to the message of the gospel is seen as a failure to turn.

[28:27]  ⁴¹ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10.