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Isaiah 6:10

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

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

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

  • KJV King James Version

    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.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and understanding with their heart, return, and be healed.'

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Cross-references (20)

Passages linked to Isaiah 6:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Matthew 13:15 for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’
  • Acts 28:27 For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, then I would heal them.’
  • Jeremiah 5:21 ‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:
  • Jeremiah 6:10 To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.
  • John 3:19-20 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
  • Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
  • Isaiah 29:10 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.
  • Isaiah 63:17 O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
  • Deuteronomy 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.
  • Psalms 17:10 They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.
  • Ezekiel 3:6-11 not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can’t understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. I have made your forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I speak to you. Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says,’ whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse.
  • Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
  • Exodus 10:27 But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he wouldn’t let them go.
  • Exodus 11:10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go out of his land.
  • Exodus 14:17 Behold, I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them. I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.
  • Psalms 119:70 Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.
  • Isaiah 19:22 Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
  • Exodus 7:3 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
  • Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
  • 2 Corinthians 2:16 to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (15 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat,…

Isa 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.

Ver. 10. Make the heart of this people fat,] sc., By preaching to them the Word of God, which, because they regard not, it shall become unto them a savour of death, as sweet ointments kill beetles, as a shrill voice hurteth weak ears, as lime is kindled by cold water cast upon it. Of such a fat heart beware. Fat things are less sensible, and fat hearted people are noted by Aristotle for dull and stupid. There is not a greater mischief can befall a man on this side hell than to be given up to a dead and dedolent disposition, such as was that of those {Eph 4:18} of the Jews in Christ’s time, and ever since, and of many Papists, who continue blind in the midst of so much light, and will not renounce those errors whereof they are clearly convinced.

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And make their ears heavy.] Preach them to hell. This is an accidental effect of the word preached, and proceedeth from men’s corruptions. {Zec 7:11} But as a hard heart, so a heavy ear is a singular judgment. {Act 7:51} Antagoras, reciting his "Thebais," a book that he had made, among the Boeotians, and they little regarding him, he folded up his book, and said, Ye may well be called Boeotians, quia boum habetis aures, for ye have oxes’ ears - playing upon the notation of their name. {a}

Lest they should see with their eyes, &c.] Or, That they may not see with their eyes, or hear, &c., but be as so many sots and stocks or statues, that have eyes and see not, &c., to their utter ruin and destruction. Neither is there any the least injustice in such a proceeding. An apprentice hath given him by his master a candle to light him to bed, which he abuseth to light him to game or drink. Hereupon his master taketh it from him, bloweth it out, and sendeth him darkling to bed, in the way whereto he breaketh his arms or his face by some fall: will any man blame the master, since the candle was his, and allowed for use? I think not. Think the like here.

And convert.] Which at times they would not, now they shall not; but having made a match with mischief, they shall henceforth have enough of it; they "love to have it so"; {Jer 5:31} they "forsake their own mercies"; {Jon 2:8} they are miserable by their own election.

And be healed,] i.e., Pardoned and purged. Atque hic pulchre exprimitur, saith one, ordo obtinendae salutis; and here is excellently set forth the order of obtaining salvation. For (1.) It is requisite that we have ears to hear, and eyes to see - not ears stopped, and eyes daubed up as these had; (2.) That what we hear and see, we understand with the heart - that is, that there be yielded thereunto both assent of the mind and consent of the will, this is faith; (3.) That we turn to the Lord by true repentance, and then we are sure of healing, which is by pardon of sin, and power against it.

{a} Erasm. Apophth.

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 Fat, i.e. stupid and senseless; for the fat which…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Make the heart of this people fat,.... Gross and…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Fat - Stupid and senseless. This making of their…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. Make the heart of this people fat…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Make the heart - The word “heart” here is…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Blind. The prophets are said to do what they…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Make . . . fat-- (Psa 119:17). "Render them…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. Make the heart… fat — The prophet Jeremiah…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. Make the heart … fat] i.e. callous, unfeeling,…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) Make the heart of this people fat.—The thought…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Make the heart of this people fat. Isaiah is…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Make the heart of this people fat
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:10 Isaiah was God’s agent to stimulate blindness and…

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