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 in the midst of the land. 13 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.”
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.