For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”
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Isaiah 29:10-12 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”
Parallel Translations
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For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.
All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;”
and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”
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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 covered.
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
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For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets, and your heads, the seers, hath He covered.
And the vision of all this is become unto you as the words of a writing that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying: 'Read this, I pray thee'; and he saith: 'I cannot, for it is sealed';
and the writing is delivered to him that is not learned, saying: 'Read this, I pray thee'; and he saith: 'I am not learned.'
Cross-references (30)
- Romans 11:8 (v10) According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this…
- Isaiah 44:18 (v10) They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
- John 7:15-16 (v12) The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?” Jesus therefore answered them, “My…
- Matthew 13:11 (v11) He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (v10) even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
Show all 30 cross-references
- Isaiah 6:9-10 (v10) He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this…
- Isaiah 8:16 (v11) Wrap up the covenant. Seal the law among my disciples.
- Isaiah 30:10 (v10) who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.
- Daniel 12:4 (v11) But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be…
- Acts 28:26-27 (v10) saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way…
- 1 Samuel 9:9 (v10) (In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come! Let’s go to the seer;” for he who is now called a prophet…
- Isaiah 29:18 (v12) In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
- Jeremiah 26:8-11 (v10) When Jeremiah had finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the…
- Daniel 12:9 (v11) He said, “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 (v10) in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the…
- 1 Samuel 26:12 (v10) So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head; and they went away: and no man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for…
- Psalms 69:23 (v10) Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
- Isaiah 3:2-3 (v10) the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the…
- Ezekiel 14:9 (v10) “ ‘ “If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will…
- Micah 3:6 (v10) “Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and…
- Matthew 11:25 (v11) At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding,…
- Isaiah 28:12-13 (v12) to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear. Therefore Yahweh’s…
- Isaiah 29:14 (v10) therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their…
- Jeremiah 5:4 (v12) Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God.
- Hosea 4:6 (v12) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to…
- Amos 7:12-13 (v10) Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but don’t prophesy…
- Micah 3:1 (v10) I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?
- Matthew 16:17 (v11) Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
- Revelation 5:1-9 (v11) I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals. I saw a mighty…
- Revelation 6:1 (v11) I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, “Come…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v11 Meaning, that it is all alike, either to read,…
Meaning, that it is all alike, either to read, or not to read, except God open the heart to understand.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Isa 29:10 For the LORD hath poured out upon…
Isa 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 covered.
Ver. 10. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep.] By a judiciary hardness he hath rolled a stone upon your hearts, and given you up to a reprobate sense. He hath cast you into a dead lethargy, a dedolent disposition; so that "because of the blindness of their hearts," this people are "past feeling," {Eph 4:18-19} and because they have wilfully winked, he hath even dashed out their eyes, bereaving them of the light against which they rebelled, {Job 24:13} so that they have neither sight nor light, lemosorum instar oculos mentis concretos habent; they are miserably benighted.
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The prophets, &c.] A blind seer is a monster. How could these, thus blindly led, avoid the ditch of destruction?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 Hath poured out upon you; which phrase notes the…
Hath poured out upon you; which phrase notes the plenty and vehemency of this judgment.
The spirit of deep sleep; hardness of heart, and insensibleness of your danger and misery, which God is said to send, because he denies or withdraws his fight and grace, which alone can cure those maladies. The prophets and your rulers, the seers; your magistrates and ministers, whose blindness or stupidity is a great curse and plague to the people. Or, the prophets, even the chief (for the head is oft put for the chief of persons or things, as Exo 30:23; 1Ch 12:18, and elsewhere) of your seers. Hath he covered with the veil of ignorance and stupidity, or as to their eyes, which is understood out of the former clause. And this last clause is and may be rendered thus, The eyes (which may be repeated out of the foregoing clause) of your prophets, and of, or even of, your principal seers, (or, and of your most intelligent rulers,) hath he covered.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–12 For the Lord hath poured out upon you a…
For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,.... Gave them up to a stupid frame of spirit; to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment and sense; to judicial blindness and hardness of heart: this was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews, in the times of Christ and his apostles, who choosing darkness rather than the light of the Gospel, which shone around them, were righteously given up to such a temper of mind; and to nothing else can be imputed their obstinate rejection of the Messiah, against the most glaring light and evidence. The Apostle Paul produces this passage, in proof of that blindness that had happened unto them in his time, Rom 11:7,
and hath closed your eyes; that is, the eyes of their understandings, so that they could not see the characters of the Messiah, and the fulfilment of prophecies in Jesus of Nazareth; nor the danger they were in, nor the ruin that was coming upon their nation, nor even when it was come, still flattering themselves with safety and deliverance:
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the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered; the eyes of them, as before; not only the common people were blinded, but even the Scribes and Pharisees, the elders of the people, their ecclesiastical rulers, who pretended to be seers, and to know more than others; even "for judgment", for the judicial blindness and hardness of these Christ "came, that they which see might be made blind", Joh 9:39. The words may be rendered, "your heads, the seers, hath he covered" (t); and there may be an allusion to the covering of the head with a veil, an emblem of that veil of ignorance and infidelity which still remains upon the Jews. The Targum renders it,
"the prophets, and the Scribes, and the teachers that teach the law.''
(t) "et capita vestra, videntes, operuit", Montanus. So Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 Dead sleep - Hardness of heart, and insensibleness of…
Dead sleep - Hardness of heart, and insensibleness of your danger. Seers - Your magistrates and ministers. Covered - With the veil of ignorance and stupidity.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v11 Verse 11. I cannot; for it is sealed -…
Verse 11. I cannot; for it is sealed - "I cannot read it; for it is sealed up."] An ancient MS. and the Septuagint have preserved a word here, lost out of the text; לקרות likroth, (for לקראות,) αναγνωναι, read it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v11 Isa 29:11-12. And the vision of all — Of…
Isa 29:11-12. And the vision of all — Of all your prophets, or every vision; is unto you as the words of a book that is sealed — Which no man can read while it is sealed up, as books then sometimes were, being in the form of rolls. Which men deliver to one that is learned — That understands the language in which the book is written; saying, Read this — he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed — Mere human learning, without supernatural illumination, will not enable any man rightly to understand the word of God, and things divine: see 1Co 2:11; 1Co 2:14. The book is delivered — Unsealed and opened; to him that is unlearned — and he saith, I cannot read it; for I am unlearned. Thus, neither the learned nor the unlearned among the Jews were any better for the messages which God sent them by his servants the prophets, nor desired to be better.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–12 For the Lord hath poured out upon you -…
For the Lord hath poured out upon you - The word rendered ‘hath poured out’ (נסך nâsak) is usually referred to the act of pouring out a libation, or drink-offering in worship Exo 30:9; Hos 9:4; Isa 30:1. Here it means that Yahweh had, as it were, “drenched them” (Septuagint, πεπότικε pepotike) with a spirit of stupefaction. This is traced to God in accordance with the usual custom in the Bible, by which his providential agency is recognized in all events (see the notes at Isa 6:9-10). Compare the notes at Rom 11:8), where this passage is quoted from the Septuagint, and is applied to the Jews in the time of the apostle Paul.
The spirit of deep, sleep - The word rendered ‘deep sleep,’ is the same as is used in Gen 2:21, to denote the sleep that God brought on Adam; and in Gen 15:12, to denote the deep sleep that fell on Abraham, and when a horror of great darkness fell upon him; and in 1Sa 26:12, to denote the deep sleep that came upon Saul when David approached and took away the spear and the cruise of water from his bolster. Here it means spiritual sluggishness, inactivity, stupidity, that prevailed everywhere among the people in regard to the things of religion.
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The seers - Those that see visions, another name for the prophets (see the note at Isa 1:1).
Hath he covered - That is, he has covered their eyes; or they are all blind.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v10 Sleep, or compunction, (Romans xi. 8.; Calmet) denoting their…
Sleep, or compunction, (Romans xi. 8.; Calmet) denoting their obstinacy. (St. Chrysostom) --- Visions. Protestants, "the seers." (Haydock) --- The Jews perceived but very imperfectly the meaning of the prophets, when they spoke of a future Redeemer, God and man. They are now more infatuated, (Calmet) having a veil on their hearts, 1 Corinthians iv. 3. Both learned and ignorant refuse to believe, excusing themselves, ver. 12. (Haydock) --- The more they read the Scriptures, the less do they understand. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Jehovah gives them up judicially to their own hardness…
Jehovah gives them up judicially to their own hardness of heart (compare Zac 14:13). Quoted by Paul, with variations from the Septuagint, Rom 11:8. See Isa 6:10; Psa 69:23.
eyes; the prophets, &c.--rather, "hath closed your eyes, the prophets; and your heads (Margin; see also Isa 3:2), the seers, He hath covered." The Orientals cover the head to sleep; thus "covered" is parallel to "closed your eyes" (Jdg 4:19). Covering the face was also preparatory to execution (Est 7:8). This cannot apply to the time when Isaiah himself prophesied, but to subsequent times.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10. Their infatuation is caused by Jehovah; see on…
10. Their infatuation is caused by Jehovah; see on ch. Isa_6:10.
deep sleep] The word (tardçmâh) is nearly always used of a profound slumber due to supernatural agency (1Sa_26:12) and favourable for the reception of Divine revelations (Job_4:13). The expressions the prophets and the seers are obviously glosses, based on a misconception of the meaning of the verse. Render: hath closed your eyes, and your heads hath he covered (or muffled).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–11 (10) The Lord hath poured out upon you .…
(10) The Lord hath poured out upon you . . .—The prophet sees in the stupor and panic of the chief of the people what we call a judicial blindness, the retribution of those who had wilfully closed their eyes against the light. (Comp. Rom_11:8.)
Your rulers.—Literally, your heads, the word being in apposition with the seers. The word is emphasised with a keen irony, precisely because they did not see. They were as those who sleep, and are “covered,” their mantle wrapped round their head, as when men settle themselves to sleep.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–12 The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit…
The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. "Sleep," in Scripture, is sometimes "rest," "repose from trouble". ("So he giveth his beloved sleep," Psa_128:2) But here it is "spiritual deadness and impassiveness an inability to appreciate, or even to understand, spiritual warnings. The Jews of Isaiah"s time were sunk in a spiritual lethargy, from which he vainly endeavored to arouse them. This spiritual lethargy is here said to have been "poured out upon them by Jehovah;" but we are not to suppose that there was anything exceptional in their treatment they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind", (Rom_1:28) as he does men generally. Hath closed your eyes. (comp. Isa_6:10; and see also Mat_12:13 Mar_4:12 Luk_8:10 Joh_12:40 Joh_11:8, etc.) The prophets. As the text stands, the proper translation would be, "For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes (the prophets), and your heads (the seers) hath he covered." But it is reasonably conjectured that the expressions, "the prophets," "the seers," are glosses, which have crept from the margin into the text (Eichhorn, Koppe, Cheyne). If so, they are probably mistaken glosses, the allusion being, not to particular classes, but to the actual "heads" and "eyes" of individual Hebrews, which were "closed" and "covered" by the judicial action of the Almighty. In the East a covering is often drawn over the head during sleep.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v11 The vision of all is become unto you as…
Isa_29:11-12
The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed
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The universality of spiritual blindness
What is affirmed in these verses holds so strikingly true of Gods general revelation to the world, that we deem the lesson contained in them to be not of partial, but permanent application.
I. There is A COMPLAINT uttered in these verses
(1) by the learned,
(2) by the unlearned.
1. If a book be closed down by a material seal, then, till that seal be broken, there lies a material obstacle even in the way of him who is able to read the contents of it. Is there any hindrance in virtue of which the critics, and the grammarians, and the accomplished theologians of our age, are unable to reach the real and effective understanding of the words of this prophecy? Yes, and it is wonderful to tell, how little the mere erudition of Scripture helps the real discernment of Scripture. The learned just labour as helplessly under a want of an impression of the reality of this whole matter, as the unlearned; and if this be true of many a priest and theologian, with whom Christianity is a science, and the study of the Bible the business of their profession, what can we expect of those among the learned, who, in the pursuits of a secular philosophy, never enter into contact with the Bible, either in its doctrine or in its language, except when it is obtruded on them? To make the wisdom of the New Testament his wisdom, and its spirit his spirit, and its language his best-loved and best-understood language, there must be a higher influence upon the mind, than what lies in human art, or in human explanation. And till this is brought to pass, the doctrines of the atonement and of regeneration, and of fellowship with the Father and the Son, and of a believers progressive holiness, under the moral and spiritual power of the truth as it is in Jesus, will, as to his own personal experience of its meaning, remain so many empty sounds, or so many deep and hidden mysteries: and just as effectually, as if the book were held together by an iron clasp, which he has not strength to unclose, may he say of the same book lying open and legible before him, that he cannot read it, because it is sealed.
2. As for the complaint of the unlearned, it happily, in the literal sense of it, is not applicable to the great majority of our immediate countrymen, even in the very humblest walks of society. They can read the book. There may remain a seal upon its meaning to him, who, in the ordinary sense of the term, is learned, while the seal may be removed, and the meaning lie open as the light of day to him, who in the same sense is unlearned. In pressing home the truths and overtures of Christianity on the poor, we often meet with the very answer of the text, I am not learned. They think that there is an ignorance which necessity attaches to their condition, and that this should alleviate the burden of their condemnation, in that they know not God. Now we refuse this apology altogether. The Word of the Lord is in your hands, and you can at least read it. The Gospel is preached unto you as well as unto others--and you can, at least, attend to it.
II. Let us now proceed to EXPLAIN A CIRCUMSTANCE which stands associated in our text with the incapacity both of learned and unlearned to discover the meaning of Gods communications--that is the spirit of deep sleep which had closed the eyes of the people, and buried in darkness and insensibility the prophets, the rulers, and the seers, as well as the humblest and most ignorant of the land. The connection between the one circumstance and the other is quite palpable. If a peasant and a philosopher were both literally asleep before me--and that so profoundly, as that no voice of mine could awaken them--then they are just in the same circumstances, with regard to any demonstration which I addressed to their understandings. Neither would it at all help the conveyance of my meaning to their mind, that while dead to all perception of the argument which issued from my lips, or even of the sound which is its vehicle, the minds of both of them were most busily alive and active amongst the imagery of a dream--the one dreaming too, perhaps, in the style of some high intellectual pursuit, and the other dreaming in the style of some common and illiterate occupation. Such, it is possible to conceive, may be the profoundness of this lethargy, as to be unmoved by the most loud and terrifying intimations. That the vast majority of the world are, in truth, asleep to all those realities which constitute the great materials of religion, may be abundantly proved by experience. Now, the question comes to be, how is this sleep dissipated? Not, we affirm, and all experience will go with us, by the power of natural argument--not by the demonstrations of human learning, for these are just as powerless with him who understands them, as with him who makes his want of learning the pretence for putting them away. There must be a something equivalent to the communication of a new sense, ere a reality comes to be seen in those eternal things. It is true, that along the course of our ordinary existence, we are awake to the concerns of our ordinary existence. But this is not a wakefulness which goes to disturb the profoundness of our insensibility as to the concerns of a higher existence. We are in one sense awake; but in another most entirely, and, to all human appearance, most hopelessly and irrecoverably asleep. We are just in the same condition with a man who is dreaming, and so moves for the time in a pictured world of his own. And the transition is not greater from the sleeping fancies of the night to the waking certainties of our daily business, than is the transition from the daydreams of a passing world to those substantial considerations which wield s presiding authority over the conduct of him who walketh not by the sight of that which is around him, but by the faith of the unseen things that are above him, and before him. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The voices of life
Here, we find the picture of the two great classes of excuses men make today, when duties are urged upon them.
I. The first great answer of human nature to the call of duty--the first and readiest excuse which the easy-going, self-indulgent life has to offer--is this first excuse of the men of Jerusalem to the unpleasant vision of the future. It is as a book which is sealed, and he who is able to read it does not read it, simply because it is closed, or sealed. Here we have a definite excuse given, which looks plausible enough, but which only means, after all, the lack of will power, which so frequently lodges behind some prominent excuse. POWERLESSNESS OF WILL! Who does not make this excuse in life?
II. The other great excuse which is so freely given is the LACK OF OPPORTUNITY. He who has the will has not the one requisite, the one condition of success, the longed for opportunity. The poor man with his tastes envies the rich their command over the forces of life. The struggling student by his midnight lamp, with his book borrowed from the library, sighs as he sees the elegantly bound but unopened volumes of those who have abundant opportunities but no appreciation of their hidden treasures, or will to read them. The invalid upon the bed of pain, whose life is a dream of impossible realities, cherishing noble yearnings for the strife, sees life passing by, padlocked and bound, with every aspiration chained and fettered by the hopeless impossibility of ever achieving anything. Practical lessons--
1. This very incompleteness of our nature shows us the souls rightful demand for another life without these limiting human conditions.
2. Right in the midst of these voices of life, these excuses for our failure, from whatever source these excuses come, the religion of Jesus Christ appears as a new creation of power.
3. Just when we feel that our motive power is failing us, or that we are helpless in our surroundings, and are lacking an opportunity for the exercise of our suppressed faculties, the Spirit of God, who is the Comforter of the sanctified heart of man and the Inspirer of his better nature, appears with His Divine mission, and opens the way out of dead levels and land-locked vistas, into new and unforeseen stretches of existence. What a power there is in this thought of the souls higher deliverance by the interposing hand of the Spirit of God, lifting us out of our poor everyday life! (W. W. Newton.)
Bible neglect reproved
The general division of the learned and the unlearned is introduced as offering an excuse for the not understanding the revelation of God. There is diversity, indeed, in the excuse itself, but there is thorough agreement upon the point, that, from some reason or another, the Bible is unintelligible; the one class taking refuge in the alleged obscurity of Scripture, and the other in their own defective education. None are represented as actually throwing scorn upon the book, but all render it a kind of involuntary homage. And we believe that no truer description could be given of the great body of men, considered relative to the light in which they view Scripture. If there were anything like a general suspicion that the Bible is not what it professes itself--a revelation from God, there would be nothing to surprise us in the general neglect with which it is treated; we should quite expect that if there were doubt as to the origin there would, for the most part, be indifference as to the contents; but with the great body of men its origin is no more brought into question than is the duty of preparing for eternity. And here we have a manifest inconsistency, to be accounted for only on the supposition that men have provided themselves with some specious apology.
I. We shall consider, therefore, THE CASE AND APOLOGY OF THE LEARNED. There is something of truth in the representation that the Bible is a sealed book. We always regard it as a standing proof of the divinity of the volume, that it is not to be unfolded by the processes which we apply to a mere human composition, and that every attempt to enter deeply into its meaning, without the assistance of its Author, issues in nothing but conjecture and confusion. But in all these excuses, however specious, and however, in a certain sense, grounded on a truth, there is nothing to warrant that refusal to examine Holy Writ which they are invented to justify. We know of no conclusion which can be fairly drawn from the confessed mysteriousness of Scripture, and the consequent need of a superhuman interpreter, but that the volume should never be approached in our own wisdom, and never without prayer for the teaching of Gods Spirit. If it would be our duty to study the volume were it not sealed, it must be equally our duty to study it when, though sealed, the way is prescribed in which it may be opened. We have only to bring this consideration into the account, and there is an end of all arguing from the obscurity of the study of Scripture.
II. THE CASE AND APOLOGY OF THE UNLEARNED MAN. Here, again, the excuse is based on a truth, but nevertheless, it in no degree justifies neglect. It is of vast importance that the poor be set right in this matter, and that they be taught that there is no necessary connection, as they seem to suppose, between scholarship and salvation. It is easier for the educated man to become, what is called a skilful divine, but it is not one jot easier for him to discover and follow the narrow path of life. Indeed, if there be advantage at all, it is on the side of the unlearned. If the understanding the Bible, so as to become morally advantaged by its statements, depend on the influences of the Holy Ghost, it is clear that the learned may read much and gain no spiritual benefit, and the unlearned read little and yet be mightily profited. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Learned and unlearned
The passage is interesting as illustrating the diffusion of literary education in Isaiahs time (Jer_5:4-5).(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Gradual revelation
Sir Joshua Reynolds says that when he first visited Italy to make the acquaintance of the celebrated masterpieces of art he was much cast down. The renowned masters maintained towards him quiet and dignified silence; they refused to confide to him their thoughts. He gazed steadfastly at the wondrous pictures whose fame had filled the world, and could not behold their glory. Persevering, however, in his studies, the pictures gradually began, one after another, to raise their veils and permit him to have an occasional peep at their rare beauty; they softly whispered to him a few of their secrets; and as he continued unwavering in his devotion, they at last flung away their reserve, showed themselves with an open face, and revealed to him the wealth of beautiful ideas that was lodged in them. (J. C. Jones.)
The Holy Spirit the Illuminator
I remember to have heard from one who was a spectator at the time, of his having once seen a little child playing upon a headland over the sea, who took a telescope from the hand of one near him, and handed it to a blind old sailor who was sitting on the cliff, and the child asked the blind man to sweep the far horizon and tell him with the glass what ships were them. The old man, however, could only turn bitterly towards the child with those sightless eyes of his; and, it seems to me, that you might as well give a telescope to a sightless man as to give the Bible to a man whom you do not suppose to possess the guidance of the Spirit. (Bp. W. Alexander.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v11 All revelation has become to you as the words…
All revelation has become to you as the words of a book that is sealed
The other prophets in Jerusalem are unable to hear or understand God's message. AT: "All that Yahweh has revealed is to you like a sealed book" (See: Simile)
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is sealed, which men might give to one who is learned
This can be stated as a new sentence. AT: "is sealed. A person may take the sealed book to someone who can read"
If the book is given to one who cannot read
This can be stated in active form. AT: "If a person takes the book to someone who cannot read" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
reveal
word
seal
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 29:10 a spirit of deep sleep: The people’s folly…
29:10 a spirit of deep sleep: The people’s folly was reinforced by God’s judgment on them (cp. Rom 1:24-32; 11:8); they had no perception of reality. • Prophets were also sometimes called visionaries. Neither the people nor their prophets would understand what God was doing (Isa 6:9-10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.