Passage

Isaiah 6.9-10

Book: Isaiah · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"7. and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven. 8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me."

"9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 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 turn again, and be healed."

"11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, 12. and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land." (Isaiah 6:7-12, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"7. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” 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!”"

"9. He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ 10. 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.”"

"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, 12. And Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land." (Isaiah 6:7-12, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"7. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ^{laid: Heb. caused it to touch} 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. ^{Here: Heb. behold me}"

"9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. ^{indeed, but understand: or, without ceasing, etc: Heb. in hearing, etc} 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."

"11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, ^{utterly: Heb. desolate with desolation} 12. And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." (Isaiah 6:7-12, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"7. and he striketh against my mouth, and saith: 'Lo, this hath stricken against thy lips, And turned aside is thine iniquity, And thy sin is covered.' 8. And I hear the voice of the Lord, saying: 'Whom do I send? and who doth go for Us?' And I say, 'Here [am] I, send me.'"

"9. And He saith, 'Go, and thou hast said to this people, Hear ye, to hear, and ye do not understand, And see ye, to see, and ye do not know. 10. Declare fat the heart of this people, And its ears declare heavy, And its eyes declare dazzled, Lest it see with its eyes, And with its ears hear, and its heart consider, And it hath turned back, and hath health.'"

"11. And I say, 'Till when, O Lord?' And He saith, 'Surely till cities have been wasted without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the ground be wasted, a desolation, 12. And Jehovah hath put man far off, And great [is] the forsaken part in the heart of the land." (Isaiah 6:7-12, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Isaiah, recounting YHWH's commission immediately after the throne-vision and seraphic cleansing
Audience: Isaiah; downstream, the unrepentant Judah of the late 8th century BC
Location: vision in the temple
Time period: "the year that King Uzziah died" (Isa 6:1), c. 740 BC

Theological reading

Isaiah's commission is a paradoxical judicial-hardening: he is sent to preach to a people whose hearing-action terminus YHWH has judicially-severed. The Hebrew construction shimu shamoa (infinitive-absolute + imperative) intensifies the verb: hear-and-keep-hearing, but the hearing does not terminate in understanding-and-turning. The verse names the inversion of the Hebrew shama-anthropology: in Israel's normal idiom, hearing terminates in doing; in judicial-hardening, the link is severed from the inside, leaving auditory-uptake without covenantal-response. The verse is the OT root of NT statements about hardening: Jesus cites it at Mt 13:14-15; Mk 4:12; Lk 8:10; John quotes it at Jn 12:40; Paul cites it at Acts 28:26-27; the same logic informs Rom 11:8-10. The commission's paradox holds within YHWH's sovereign-mercy framework: the hardening is judicial-response to long-rejected prophetic-word; it is also pedagogical-and-temporary, preserving a remnant (Isa 6:13's "holy seed") through whose hearing the eschatological-reversal will come (Isa 50:4-5).

Key words

H8085 - shama, shimu shamoa, the load-bearing verb of the hardening commission; the hear-and-keep-hearing-without-understanding construction.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.