New International Version
Isaiah 29:12
12Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
Isaiah 29:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
- English Standard Version (ESV)And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot read."
- New King James Version (NKJV)Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate.”
- New Living Translation (NLT)When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”
Context of Isaiah 29:12
10The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). 11For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.” 13The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. 14Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Read all of Isaiah 29Isaiah 29:12 word by word
וְנִתַּ֣ן הַסֵּ֗פֶר עַל֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֥ע סֵ֛פֶר לֵאמֹ֖ר קְרָ֣א נָא־זֶ֑ה וְאָמַ֕ר לֹ֥א יָדַ֖עְתִּי סֵֽפֶר׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Isaiah 29:12
- Isaiah 29:18In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
- Isaiah 28:12to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— but they would not listen.
- Jeremiah 5:4I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.
- Hosea 4:6my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
- John 7:15The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
Commentaries on Isaiah 29:12
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12And the book is delivered - That is, they are just as ignorant of the true nature and meaning of the revelations of God as a man is of the contents of a book who is utterly unable to read.Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 9-16Verses 9-16 The security of sinners in sinful ways, is cause for lamentation and wonder. The learned men, through prejudice, said that the Divine prophecies were obscure; and the poor urged their want of learning. The Bible is a sealed book to every man, learned or unlearned, till he begins to study it with a simple heart and a teachable spirit, that he may thence learn the truth and the will of God. To worship God, is to approach him. And if the heart be…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8-12Jerusalem’s blindness kept its people from understanding God’s plan. Here, blindness does not mean physical blindness. It means spiritual blindness. The people could see with their eyes, but they did not understand what God was doing.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. The unlearned succeed no better than the learned, not from want of human learning, as they fancy, but from not having the teaching of God (Is 54:13; Jr 31:34; Joh 6:45; 1Co 2:7-10; 1Jo 2:20).Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 29:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 29
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New International Version — © NIV® 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica
Commentaries