9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it; look hard, but you won't catch on.' 10 Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won't see a thing, won't hear a word, So they won't have a clue about what's going on and, yes, so they won't turn around and be made whole." 11 Astonished, I said, "And Master, how long is this to go on?" He said, "Until the cities are emptied out, not a soul left in the cities - Houses empty of people, countryside empty of people. 12 Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off, the land totally empty. 13 And even if some should survive, say a tenth, the devastation will start up again. The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down - Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there's a holy seed in those stumps."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 6:9-13
Commentary on Isaiah 6:9-13
(Read Isaiah 6:9-13)
God sends Isaiah to foretell the ruin of his people. Many hear the sound of God's word, but do not feel the power of it. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind, because they will not receive the truth in the love of it. But no humble inquirer after Christ, need to fear this awful doom, which is a spiritual judgment on those who will still hold fast their sins. Let every one pray for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, that he may perceive how precious are the Divine mercies, by which alone we are secured against this dreadful danger. Yet the Lord would preserve a remnant, like the tenth, holy to him. And blessed be God, he still preserves his church; however professors or visible churches may be lopped off as unfruitful, the holy seed will shoot forth, from whom all the numerous branches of righteousness shall arise.