Isaiah 6:10 Meaning and Explanation
“Make the heart of this people fat, and 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 convert, and be healed.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The Lord commands Isaiah to thicken people's hearts and deafen their perception so they remain unable to repent and be healed.
The Context of Isaiah 6:10
Isaiah's preaching will deepen the people's spiritual insensitivity.
What Does Isaiah 6:10 Mean?
This verse frames the hardening as the Lord's direct action through Isaiah's prophetic word. 'Fat heart' (hardened sensibility), 'heavy ears' (dullness to hearing), and 'shut eyes' (blindness to truth) describe a deepening spiritual insensitivity. The climactic condition—'lest they...convert and be healed'—clarifies that this hardening is judicial. The Lord is saying, in effect: your word will operate as a judgment that seals those already bent toward rebellion.
This reflects an Old Testament pattern: prolonged rejection of God's word eventually results in decreasing capacity to hear it. Isaiah is told in advance that his faithful preaching will not produce mass conversion but will instead function as a sieve separating the remnant who respond from the majority who harden. This is not cruelty but consequence—the people's own refusal to understand will be confirmed and deepened by the prophetic word.
Isaiah 6:10 in the Original Language
shamaen (שָׁמַן), 'make fat'—to make gross or insensitive; used of both literal fat and metaphorical hardness of heart.
Frequently Asked Questions About Isaiah 6:10
What does Isaiah 6:10 mean?
The Lord commands Isaiah to thicken people's hearts and deafen their perception so they remain unable to repent and be healed.
What is the context of Isaiah 6:10?
Isaiah's preaching will deepen the people's spiritual insensitivity.