Isaiah 29:12

12 Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot 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 For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.

11 And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”

12 Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”

13 Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

14 Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden. ”