Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 6 presents a direct command to harden the hearts, ears, and eyes of the people. The Greek Septuagint translation softens this by removing the command and instead describing the people as already having hardened hearts and blinded eyes.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 6:10
Hebrew Bible
8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell these people: “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand. Look continually, but don’t perceive.’ 10 Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind. Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.” 11 I replied, “How long, Lord?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, 12 and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 6:10
Septuagint
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, look, I am here, send me. 9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You shall hear indeed, but you shall not understand; and you shall see indeed, but you shall not perceive. 10 For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; for fear that they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 11 And I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate. 12 And after this God shall remove the men far off, and they that are left upon the land shall be multiplied.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Like LXX Psalms, LXX Isaiah had a great impact on the New Testament. LXX Isaiah 6:9-10, for example, which softens the shock of the Hebrew, is put to apologetic use in Acts 28:27. The so-called 'Servant Songs', which Christian writers apply to Christ, are given a collective sense in the LXX ..."
Jennifer M. Dines, The Septuagint (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 22.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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