Bible Strands
Isaiah 29:10
For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel’s prophets and seers during a declared period of enforced spiritual insensitivity. The statement follows a call to recognize their condition as a direct judicial act rather than a natural failure.
The words — נָסַ֨ךְ (na.Sakh) literally means “he has poured out,” and תַּרְדֵּמָ֔ה (tar.de.Mah) denotes a heavy, divinely induced “deep sleep.” The verb יְעַצֵּם (ya.Tzem) specifies the physical act of “shutting” eyes closed.
The thread — This motif of God closing eyes and imparting a spirit of stupor appears in Romans 11:8, Isaiah 44:18, and 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Each passage applies the imagery to divine judgment against unbelief.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that spiritual perception is subject to God’s sovereign action, not human effort. Readers must confront the reality that divine judgment can render revelation inaccessible to those who reject it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Romans 11:8 as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
- Isaiah 44:18 They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
- Isaiah 6:9 And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- Isaiah 30:10 They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.
- Acts 28:26 ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- 1 Samuel 9:9 (Formerly in Israel, a man on his way to inquire of God would say, “Come, let us go to the seer.” For the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.)
- Jeremiah 26:8 and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die!
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- 1 Samuel 26:12 So David took the spear and water jug by Saul’s head, and they departed. No one saw them or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up; they all remained asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.