Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Isaiah to the idol-making people of Judah, immediately after describing a man who carves a god from half a log and cooks on the other half (v. 17).
The words — טַח (tach, "besmeared") renders blindness as a physical smear over the eyes rather than an absence of light. The pair יָדְעוּ / יָבִינוּ (yada' / binu, "know / understand") distinguishes raw perception from discernment and denies both.
The thread — The same motif of divinely imposed blindness runs through Isaiah 6:9, 2 Corinthians 4:3, and John 12:39, where inability to perceive is presented as a judicial act rather than mere intellectual failure.
Why it lands — The verse removes the comfort of "they simply didn't think it through"; it says the capacity itself was shut, which forces the reader to ask whether their own unbelief is a gap in reasoning or a sealed door.
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
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 6:9 And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- 2 Corinthians 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
- John 12:39 For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:
- 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,
- Jeremiah 5:21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
- Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
- Proverbs 2:5 then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.
- Matthew 13:14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
- John 5:44 How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
- Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.