He
said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. 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 turn again, and be healed.”
Isaiah 6:9-10
Isaiah 6 [8.] I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
Isaiah 6 [9.] He said, “Go, and tell this people,
‘You hear indeed,
but don’t understand;
and you see indeed,
but don’t perceive.’
Make the heart of this people fat.
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 turn again, and be healed.”
Isaiah 6 [11.] Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered,
“Until cities are waste without inhabitant,
and houses without man,
and the land becomes utterly waste,
And Yahweh has removed men far away,
and the forsaken places are many within the land.
If there is a tenth left in it,
that also will in turn be consumed:
as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled;
so the holy seed is its stock.”
Meaning:
Isaiah 6 records the call of the prophet Isaiah "in the year that king Uzziah died", around 740 BC. Isaiah has just seen the Lord enthroned in holiness, confessed that he is a man of unclean lips, and been cleansed by a live coal taken from the altar (Isaiah 6:5-7). When the Lord asks who will go for him, Isaiah answers, “Here I am. Send me!” These two verses are the commission he then receives, and it is one of the hardest in the Bible. Isaiah is to preach faithfully to a nation whose heart is already turned away, knowing that his message will expose and confirm their dullness rather than bring a quick national revival. Centuries later Jesus quoted these very words to explain why he taught the crowds in parables (Mark 4:12; Matthew 13:13).
- A Prophet Sent to a Hardened Nation
Uzziah's long reign had brought Judah military strength and prosperity, but the opening chapters of Isaiah describe a people who kept up temple worship while tolerating bribery, oppression of widows and orphans, and the worship of other gods. Outward religion had become a covering for inward rebellion. Into that setting God sends a prophet, and he tells him in advance that most of his hearers will not respond.
Notice that God still calls the nation "this people". He has not stopped speaking to them. The tragedy is not that God is silent, but that his people have stopped listening while the words keep coming.
- Hearing Without Understanding
In Hebrew thought the "heart" is not only the seat of feeling but of thinking, choosing and willing. A "fat" heart is dull and insensitive, like a body wrapped in so much fat that it can no longer feel. "Heavy" ears are hard of hearing, and "shut" eyes are smeared over so that they cannot see. Isaiah's hearers would physically hear his words and see his signs, yet the meaning would not reach them.
The commands "make the heart of this people fat" are a prophetic way of announcing what the ministry will produce. God's word always does something: it softens those who receive it and hardens those who keep refusing it. This is a judicial hardening, God giving people over to the choice they have already made. The New Testament warns believers not to follow that path: Hebrews 3:7-8 urges, "Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts". Jesus himself was grieved at the hardening of hearts he met in the synagogue (Mark 3:5).
- Judgment, Yet a Holy Seed
Isaiah's reply, "Lord, how long?", is the cry of a prophet who loves the people he must warn. The answer is sobering: until the cities are emptied and the land laid waste, which came to pass in the Assyrian invasions and finally in the Babylonian exile. Yet the chapter closes with hope. Like the stump of a felled terebinth or oak, a remnant will remain, and "the holy seed is its stock". Judgment is never God's last word for those who belong to him.
That remnant theme runs through the whole of Isaiah and comes to its fulfilment in the Messiah, the shoot who grows from a cut-down stump. God's purposes survive even the unbelief of the majority.
- Quoted by Jesus
When Jesus' disciples asked why he spoke to the crowds in parables, he answered with Isaiah 6. His parables worked exactly as Isaiah's preaching had: those who were hungry for God leaned in, asked questions and received the explanation, while those who were indifferent heard only stories (Mark 4:11). Jesus then turned to his disciples and said that their eyes and ears were blessed, because they were seeing and hearing what prophets had longed for (Matthew 13:16-17).
The Significance of Isaiah 6:9-10
- The Seriousness of Hearing
These verses remind us that it is possible to be surrounded by God's word and remain untouched by it. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17), but hearing must reach the heart. Each time we read Scripture or listen to preaching we are being shaped, either toward tenderness or toward hardness.
- Mercy Behind the Warning
Isaiah himself had been a man of unclean lips who was cleansed the moment he confessed his sin (Isaiah 6:5-7). The same mercy is offered to all who turn. The Lord is patient, "not wishing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9), and the very words of warning are an invitation to turn again and be healed.
Cross-References:
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.’" Jesus applies Isaiah’s commission to his own parables, showing that the same pattern of hearing without understanding was repeated in his day.
Matthew 13:13: "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand." Matthew records Jesus saying that the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in those who heard him without understanding.
Matthew 13:16-17: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear." The other side of Isaiah 6: those who receive the word with open hearts are richly blessed.
Hebrews 3:7-8: "Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion" The warning is renewed for believers: respond to God’s voice today, while the heart is still tender.
Conclusion: Isaiah 6:9-10 is a sobering commission, but it is also deeply honest about the human heart. God keeps speaking even to a people who will not listen, and his word never returns without effect. For some it confirms a hardness they have chosen; for others it opens blind eyes and deaf ears. Let us ask the Lord for soft hearts that hear, see and understand, and that turn again to him to be healed.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible