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.’
Parallel Translations
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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.’
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For this peoples hertes are wexed grosse and their eares were dull of herynge and their eyes have they closed lest they shulde se with their eyes and heare with their eares and shuld vnderstonde with their hertes and shuld tourne that I myght heale them.
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For this peoples heart is waxed fat, and their eares are dull of hearing, and with their eyes they haue winked, lest they should see with their eyes, and heare with their eares, and should vnderstand with their hearts, and should returne, that I might heale them.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Matthew 13:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 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.”
- Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
- Mark 4:12 that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”
- John 8:43-44 Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
- 2 Timothy 2:25-26 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will.
- Isaiah 29:10-12 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.”
- Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
- Malachi 4:2 But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
- Psalms 119:70 Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.
- Hebrews 5:11 About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.
- Acts 7:57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord.
- 2 Timothy 4:4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.
- Hebrews 6:4-6 For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.
- Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
- 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,
- Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Isaiah 57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
- Jeremiah 33:6 ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11 and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
- Jeremiah 3:22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and…
15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Ver. 15. For this people’s heart, &c.] A fat heart is a fearful plague. "Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law," Psa 119:70. None can delight in God’s law that are fat-hearted. Feeding cattle, we know, are most brutish and blockish. And physiognomers observe, that a full and fat heart betokens a dull and doltish disposition. Eglon’s fat paunch would not part with the poniard: and Pliny tells of bears so fat that they felt not the sharpest prickles.
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Their ears are dull of hearing] So were the disbelieving Hebrews, for the which they are much taxed and tutored by the apostle. {a} Surdaster erat M. Crassus; sed illud peius, quod male audiebat, saith Cicero. These here hear very ill, for their no better hearing.
Their eyes they have closed] Or they wink hard with their eyes: they shut the windows, lest the light should come in: ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant, they do not what they might, toward the work. (Bern.)
Lest at any time they should see] See we may here (in that which they should have seen and done) the right order of repentance to salvation never to be repented of. The blind eye is opened, the deaf ear unstopped, the dull heart affected, &c. God first puts his laws into men’s minds, that they may know them, and then writes the same in their hearts, that they may have the comfort, feeling, and fruition of them. And then it is, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people," Heb 8:10.
{a} Νωθροι ταις ακοαις, Heb 5:11.
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.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But blessed are your eyes, for they see,.... Which…
But blessed are your eyes, for they see,.... Which is to be understood both of corporal and intellectual sight: it was their happiness to see Christ in the flesh, and converse with him in person, be eyewitnesses of his majesty, and see with their own eyes the miracles performed by him, the proofs and attestations of those doctrines they were to publish to all the world; and it was still their greater happiness, that they saw his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth: many saw him in the flesh, as they did, with their bodily eyes, but saw no beauty, nor comeliness in him, nothing amiable and desirable in him; but these saw his personal and transcendent glories, as the Son of God, his fulness as mediator, his suitableness as a Saviour and Redeemer, and all the characters of the Messiah in him; and so believed, and were sure that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God: they saw Christ, not in the promise, as Abraham, and other patriarchs did; nor through types and shadows, as the saints of the Old Testament did; to them it was given to know and understand the mysteries of grace, respecting the person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ.
And your ears, for they hear. This also must be understood of corporal and intellectual hearing, another branch of their present happiness. They heard the words of truth from the lips of that great prophet Moses said should rise up among them, like unto him, whom they should hear: they heard, with their own ears, a voice from heaven, declaring him to be the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased. They heard the Gospel preached by him, not only so as to be affected with it, and give their assent to it, but also to understand it spiritually, and experimentally, and to bring forth the fruit of it; and so were that sort of hearers, signified by the good ground in the parable Christ had just delivered. The forms of speech, in which the happiness of the disciples is here expressed, seem to be in common use with the Jews, when they would extol the peculiar attainments of a man, especially in matters of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Thus, it being told R. Jochanan ben Zaccai of some persons that had expounded the work of Mercavah, that is, the beginning of Ezekiel's prophecy, and the mysterious passages in it, and what befell them, expressed himself thus concerning them (n);
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"blessed are you, and blessed are your children, , "and blessed are the eyes that so see".''
And elsewhere (o) mention being made of a book of secrets delivered to Solomon, and which he had understanding of, it is said,
, "blessed is the eye that sees, and the ear that hears", and the heart that understands, and causes to understand, the wisdom of it.''
(n) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 14. 2. (o) Sepher Raziel, fol. 34. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. Heart is waxed gross] επαχυνθη, is become…
Verse 15. Heart is waxed gross] επαχυνθη, is become fat - inattentive stupid, insensible. They hear heavily with their ears-are half asleep while the salvation of God is preached unto them.
Their eyes they have closed] Totally and obstinately resisted the truth of God, and shut their eyes against the light.
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Lest-they should see, &c.] Lest they should see their lost estate, and be obliged to turn unto God, and seek his salvation. His state is truly deplorable who is sick unto death, and yet is afraid of being cured. The fault is here totally in the people, and not at all in that God whose name is Mercy and whose nature is love.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And should be converted. In this the prophet shews…
And should be converted. In this the prophet shews the atrocity of the Jewish wickedness, and the malice of their hearts, but that he may attach them to God, their Father, he immediately subjoins, lest being converted, I should heal them; and this he says, in order to manifest to them the goodness of God, if they would repent. (St. John Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- There is some difference between the text of Isaias, given by St. Matthew, and the original. But we have elsewhere observed, that the evangelists attend more to the sense than the words. The Septuagint have translated this text in the same manner. The prophecy here mentioned regarded the Jews in the time of Isaias, according to the strict letter, but still more particularly the Jews in the time of Christ. (Bible de Vence) --- They were authors of their own blindness, sin, damnation, and not Jesus Christ, as Calvin teaches. See also Acts of the Apostles, xxviii. and Romans. i. and ix. 18. &c. God is not the author of evil. (Bristow)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. For this people’s heart is waxed gross —…
15. For this people’s heart is waxed gross — The reason is now given why those withholdings of truth are inflicted. The minds of the people had grown too gross to receive it. For instance, had the parable of the mustard seed been explained to the Pharisees as indicating that the Gospel would yet fill the earth, it would only have excited their additional hostility, and hastened their purpose of accusing him as intending to subvert the existing government. As their purpose had become too fixed, and their hearts too hard to enter into the spirit and plan of the kingdom of God, its teachings must remain mysteries to them. Dull of hearing — That is, of hearing what was most deeply essential to their good. Their eyes they have closed — It is they who have done it. Their blindness is wilful. They close their own eyes to the beauty of the Gospel, and therefore its real principles must be kept from them. I should heal them — As I would gladly do, if they would but allow it to be done.
It is the law of God’s spiritual kingdom, that resistance to truth hardens the heart. To brace their minds against the truth and to defend themselves in opposition to it, they arm themselves with countless falsehoods. Their minds thereby get into that state that it benefits them not; nay, even damages and condemns them. It may be then even a mercy to withhold it from them. They may use it to evil purposes, and it may bring them into greater sin. Or they may have so insulted it that they have by their own heinous guilt rendered themselves, like the damned in hell, unworthy of it.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. this people’s heart is waxed gross] The heart…
15. this people’s heart is waxed gross] The heart was regarded as the seat of intelligence. Gross, literally, fat, so stolid, dull, like pinguis in Latin.
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 (15) Lest at any time they should see.—The words…
(15) Lest at any time they should see.—The words point to the obstinate, wilful ignorance which refuses to look on the truth, lest the look should lead to conviction, and conviction to conversion—the ignorance of those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (Joh_3:19).
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 For this people"s heart is waxed gross. There are…
For this people"s heart is waxed gross. There are two ways of understanding this verse as it comes here.
(1) It states the reason why God pronounced the judgment of ver. 14. The people"s heart had already become fat, lest (mh pote will then express the effect from the Divine point of view) they should see, etc.
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(2) It merely enlarges the statement of ver. 14, expanding its meaning: (for this force of gar , cf. Mar_2:15 Luk_18:32) their heart is waxed fat (by God"s judgment for preceding sins), lest they should see, etc. This second explanation is preferable, for it alone suits the imperative found in the Hebrew. (cf. the transitive verbs in Joh_12:40) and is strictly parallel to the introductory vers. 11-13, which do not dwell upon the causes of God"s judgment. And their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest at any time (Mat_4:6, note) they should see; perceive (Revised Version) to recall the same word in ver. 14. With their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart. Bengel calls attention to the order; first came heart, ears, eyes; here, eyes, ears, heart. "A corde corruptio manat in aures et oculos: per oculos et aures sanitas pervenit ad cor." And should be converted; and should turn again (Revised Version, epistreqwsi); for "to be converted" has acquired too technical a meaning. And I should heal them (kai iasomai autouv). The verb is still dependent on the lest, (cf. Mat_5:25 Mat_7:6) but the future brings out the certainty of God"s healing them on their turning, etc.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus finishes quoting the prophet Isaiah.
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For this people's heart ... I would heal them
In Mat 13:15 God describes the people of Israel as if they have physical diseases that cause them to be unable to learn, to see, and to hear. God wants them to come to him so he will heal them. This is all a metaphor describing the people's spiritual condition. It means the people are stubborn and refuse to receive and understand God's truth. If they would, then they would repent and God would forgive them and welcome them back as his people. If the meaning is clear, keep the metaphor in your translation. (See: Metaphor)
this people's heart has become dull
Here "heart" refers to the mind. AT: "these people's minds are slow to learn" or "these people can no longer learn" (See: Metonymy)
they are hard of hearing
They are not physically deaf. Here "hard of hearing" means they refuse to listen and learn God's truth. AT: "they refuse to use their ears to listen" (See: Metonymy)
they have closed their eyes
They have not literally closed their eyes. This means they refuse to understand. AT: "they refuse to use their eyes to see" (See: Metonymy)
so they should not see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their hearts, so they would turn again
"so that they are not able to see with their eyes, hear with their ears, or understand with their heart, and as a result turn again"
understand with their hearts
Here "hearts" is a metonym for people's minds. AT: "understand with their minds" (See: Metonymy)
turn again
"turn back to me" or "repent"
I would heal them
"have me heal them." This means God would heal them spiritually by forgiving their sins and receiving them again as his people. AT: "have me receive them again" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
heart
cure
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.