Isaiah 29:12

12 Or you may give the book to someone who cannot read and tell him to read it. But he will say, "I don't know how to read."

Isaiah 29:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:12

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned
Or that knows not a book or letters, as before, and so consequently cannot read, having never been put to school, or learned to read:

saying, Read this, I pray thee;
or "now" ^F23, at once, immediately:

and he saith, I am not learned;
he does not excuse himself on account of its being sealed, but on account of his want of learning; which shows the former was but an excuse. In short, the sum of it is this, that neither the learned nor unlearned, among the Jews, cared to read their Bibles, or to search the Scriptures, and the prophecies in them, concerning the Messiah, and that neither of them understood them; these things were hid from the wise and prudent, as well as from the ignorant and unlearned of the people, in common, and were only made known to a few babes and sucklings. There was great ignorance of the Scriptures in the times of Christ, to which these passages truly belong, ( Matthew 11:25 Matthew 11:26 ) ( 22:29 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (an) "nunc", Pagninus, Montanus.

Isaiah 29:12 In-Context

10 The Lord has made you go into a deep sleep. He has closed your eyes. (The prophets are your eyes.) He has covered your heads. (The seers are your heads.)

11 This vision is like the words of a book that is closed and sealed. You may give the book to someone who can read and tell that person to read it. But he will say, "I can't read the book, because it is sealed."

12 Or you may give the book to someone who cannot read and tell him to read it. But he will say, "I don't know how to read."

13 The Lord says: "These people say they love me; they show honor to me with words, but their hearts are far from me. The honor they show me is nothing but human rules.

14 So I will continue to amaze these people by doing more and more miracles. Their wise men will lose their wisdom; their wise men will not be able to understand."