Mark 4:12

4:12 so that although they look they may look but not see,

and although they hear they may hear but not understand,

so they may not repent and be forgiven.” ¹ 

Deuteronomy 29:4

29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! ² 

Psalms 69:23

69:23 May their eyes be blinded! ³ 

Make them shake violently! ⁴ 

Psalms 115:5-8

115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

115:6 ears, but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell,

115:7 hands, but cannot touch,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot even clear their throats. ⁵ 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ⁶  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 6:9-10

6:9 He said, “Go and tell these people:

‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!

Look continually, but don’t perceive!’

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.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 42:18-20

The Lord Reasons with His People

42:18 “Listen, you deaf ones!

Take notice, ⁸  you blind ones!

42:19 My servant is truly blind,

my messenger is truly deaf.

My covenant partner, ⁹  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ¹⁰ 

42:20 You see ¹¹  many things, but don’t comprehend; ¹² 

their ears are open, but do not hear.”

Isaiah 44:18

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 5:21

5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this,

you foolish people who have no understanding,

who have eyes but do not discern,

who have ears but do not perceive: ¹⁴ 

Matthew 13:14-15

13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ¹⁵  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ¹⁶  yet will never comprehend.

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ¹⁷ 

John 12:40

12:40 “He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their heart, ¹⁸ 

so that they would not see with their eyes

and understand with their heart, ¹⁹ 

and turn to me, ²⁰  and I would heal them.” ²¹ 

Acts 28:26-27

28:26 when he said,

‘Go to this people and say,

“You will keep on hearing, ²²  but will never understand,

and you will keep on looking, ²³  but will never perceive.

28:27 For the heart of this people has become dull, ²⁴ 

and their ears are hard of hearing, ²⁵ 

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, ²⁶  and I would heal them.”’ ²⁷ 

Romans 11:8

11:8 as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,

eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear,

to this very day.” ²⁸ 

[4:12]  ¹ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[29:4]  ² tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

[69:23]  ³ tn Heb “may their eyes be darkened from seeing.”

[69:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “make their hips shake continually.”

[115:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).

[115:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”

[6:10]  ⁷ 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.”

[42:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “look to see”; NAB, NCV “look and see”; NRSV “look up and see.”

[42:19]  ⁹ tc The precise meaning of מְשֻׁלָּם (mÿshullam) in this context is uncertain. In later biblical Hebrew the form (which appears to be a Pual participle from the root שָׁלַם, shalam) occurs as a proper name, Meshullam. The Pual of שָׁלַם (“be complete”) is attested with the meaning “repaid, requited,” but that makes little sense here. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלַם relates the form to the denominative verb שָׁלַם (“be at peace”) and paraphrases “one in a covenant of peace” (J. N. Oswalt suggests “the covenanted one”; Isaiah [NICOT], 2:128, n. 59) Some emend the form to מֹשְׁלָם (moshÿlam, “their ruler”) or to מְשֻׁלָּחִי (mÿshullakhi, “my sent [or “commissioned”] one”), which fits nicely in the parallelism (note “my messenger” in the previous line). The translation above assumes an emendation to כְּמוֹ שֹׁלְמִי (kÿmo sholÿmi, “like my ally”). Isaiah uses כְּמוֹ in 30:22 and perhaps 51:5; for שֹׁלְמי (“my ally”) see Ps 7:5 HT (7:4 ET).

[42:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger I send? Who is blind like my commissioned one, blind like the servant of the Lord?” The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one is as blind/deaf as this servant. In this context the Lord’s “servant” is exiled Israel (cf. 41:8-9), which is spiritually blind and deaf and has failed to fulfill God’s purpose for it. This servant stands in contrast to the ideal “Israel” of the servant songs.

[42:20]  ¹¹ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has a perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; the marginal reading (Qere) has an infinitive absolute, which functions here as a finite verb.

[42:20]  ¹² tn Heb “but you do not guard [i.e., retain in your memory]”; NIV “but have paid no attention.”

[44:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[5:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[13:14]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).

[13:14]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.

[13:15]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[12:40]  ¹⁸ tn Or “closed their mind.”

[12:40]  ¹⁹ tn Or “their mind.”

[12:40]  ²⁰ tn One could also translate στραφῶσιν (strafwsin) as “repent” or “change their ways,” but both of these terms would be subject to misinterpretation by the modern English reader. The idea is one of turning back to God, however. The words “to me” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:40]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Isa 6:10.

[28:26]  ²² tn Grk “you will hear with hearing” (an idiom).

[28:26]  ²³ tn Or “seeing”; Grk “you will look by looking” (an idiom).

[28:27]  ²⁴ tn Or “insensitive.”

[28:27]  ²⁵ tn Grk “they hear heavily with their ears” (an idiom for slow comprehension).

[28:27]  ²⁶ sn Note how the failure to respond to the message of the gospel is seen as a failure to turn.

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

[11:8]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Deut 29:4; Isa 29:10.