Matthew 13:15

Connecting Statement:

Jesus finishes quoting the prophet Isaiah.

For this people's heart ... I would heal them

In Mat 13:15 God describes the people of Israel as if they have physical diseases that cause them to be unable to learn, to see, and to hear. God wants them to come to him so he will heal them. This is all a metaphor describing the people's spiritual condition. It means the people are stubborn and refuse to receive and understand God's truth. If they would, then they would repent and God would forgive them and welcome them back as his people. If the meaning is clear, keep the metaphor in your translation. (See: Metaphor)

this people's heart has become dull

Here "heart" refers to the mind. AT: "these people's minds are slow to learn" or "these people can no longer learn" (See: Metonymy)

they are hard of hearing

They are not physically deaf. Here "hard of hearing" means they refuse to listen and learn God's truth. AT: "they refuse to use their ears to listen" (See: Metonymy)

they have closed their eyes

They have not literally closed their eyes. This means they refuse to understand. AT: "they refuse to use their eyes to see" (See: Metonymy)

so they should not see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their hearts, so they would turn again

"so that they are not able to see with their eyes, hear with their ears, or understand with their heart, and as a result turn again"

understand with their hearts

Here "hearts" is a metonym for people's minds. AT: "understand with their minds" (See: Metonymy)

turn again

"turn back to me" or "repent"

I would heal them

"have me heal them." This means God would heal them spiritually by forgiving their sins and receiving them again as his people. AT: "have me receive them again" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

heart

cure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Mat 13:15. Ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἠ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, FOR this people’s heart is waxed gross) It stands thus in the S. V.; but in the Hebrew there is no word corresponding to the Greek γᾶρ, for. The language, however, rapidly turns itself away from them.[607]—ἡ καρδία, the heart, τοῖς ὠσὶ—τούς ὀφθαλμοὺς, with their ears, their eyes) These three occur again immediately in the opposite order: “with their eyes,” “with their ears,” “with their heart.” The heart is the first in the beginning, the last in the end. From the heart corruption flows into the ears and eyes; through the eyes and ears health[608] reaches the heart.—ἐκάμμυσαν—μήποτε—ἰάσωμαι αὐτούς, they have closed, lest at any time I should heal them) God therefore had wished to heal them; and it is clear that healing was close to them, if they had only turned to it. In Mar 4:12, we read “καὶ ἀφεθῇ αὐτοῖς τὰ ἁμαρτήματα;” i.e. “and their sins be forgiven them.” Cf. Psa 103:3.—συνῶσι, should understand) The seat[609] of σύνεσις, understanding, and νοήσις, perception, is the heart, not the brain: this is equally true of πώρωσις, hardening (see Joh 12:40), and of σκοτασμός, darkening (see Rom 1:21); as also of ἀπιστία, unbelief, and πίστις, faith, which is followed by ἐπιστροφή, conversion.[610]

[607] “Sermo autem celeriter se ab iis avertit.” This is one of many instances where it is impossible to find an English equivalent to the Latin “Sermo,” Bengel’s moaning is that whereas, in Mat 13:9, God had commanded the prophet to go and speak to the Jews, saying, “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not,” in Mat 13:8, He suddenly changes the Sermo, i.e. the mode of speech, the direction of His words; and, instead of desiring Isaiah to address the people, turns from them, as it were, and gives an injunction to the prophet, regarding them, it is true, but not addressed to them: sc. “Make the heart of this people fat, etc.”—(I. B.)

[608] “Sanitas,” lit. soundness, an expression applied indifferently to mind or body, as in the well-known passage of Juvenal:—

[609] “Subjectum quo.”—(I. B.)

[610] The Hebrew accents undoubtedly connect the words καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσι (and should be converted) more closely with συνῶσι (should understand) than with ἰάσωμαι (I should heal). And in many passages of the Old Testament which are quoted in the New, the Hebrew accents agree more accurately with the force of the exact words of the Inspired original than the punctuation employed by the Greeks: e.g. Mat 4:15; Mat 19:5; Mat 21:5; Luk 4:18; Act 7:6; Act 8:32; Heb 1:12; Heb 3:9; Heb 12:26; Heb 13:6. And yet these Greeks were Christians. We ought not, therefore, to think that the Hebrew accents have originated with the modern Jews left to their blindness. Their origin is far more ancient, far more sublime.”—APP. CRIT., Ed. II., p. 120.

“Ut sit mens sana in corpere sano.”—(I. B.)

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 15. Heart is waxed gross] επαχυνθη, is become fat - inattentive stupid, insensible. They hear heavily with their ears-are half asleep while the salvation of God is preached unto them.

Their eyes they have closed] Totally and obstinately resisted the truth of God, and shut their eyes against the light.

Lest-they should see, &c.] Lest they should see their lost estate, and be obliged to turn unto God, and seek his salvation. His state is truly deplorable who is sick unto death, and yet is afraid of being cured. The fault is here totally in the people, and not at all in that God whose name is Mercy and whose nature is love.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) Lest at any time they should see.—The words point to the obstinate, wilful ignorance which refuses to look on the truth, lest the look should lead to conviction, and conviction to conversion—the ignorance of those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (Joh_3:19).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. this people’s heart is waxed gross] The heart was regarded as the seat of intelligence. Gross, literally, fat, so stolid, dull, like pinguis in Latin.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see,.... Which is to be understood both of corporal and intellectual sight: it was their happiness to see Christ in the flesh, and converse with him in person, be eyewitnesses of his majesty, and see with their own eyes the miracles performed by him, the proofs and attestations of those doctrines they were to publish to all the world; and it was still their greater happiness, that they saw his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth: many saw him in the flesh, as they did, with their bodily eyes, but saw no beauty, nor comeliness in him, nothing amiable and desirable in him; but these saw his personal and transcendent glories, as the Son of God, his fulness as mediator, his suitableness as a Saviour and Redeemer, and all the characters of the Messiah in him; and so believed, and were sure that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God: they saw Christ, not in the promise, as Abraham, and other patriarchs did; nor through types and shadows, as the saints of the Old Testament did; to them it was given to know and understand the mysteries of grace, respecting the person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ.

And your ears, for they hear. This also must be understood of corporal and intellectual hearing, another branch of their present happiness. They heard the words of truth from the lips of that great prophet Moses said should rise up among them, like unto him, whom they should hear: they heard, with their own ears, a voice from heaven, declaring him to be the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased. They heard the Gospel preached by him, not only so as to be affected with it, and give their assent to it, but also to understand it spiritually, and experimentally, and to bring forth the fruit of it; and so were that sort of hearers, signified by the good ground in the parable Christ had just delivered. The forms of speech, in which the happiness of the disciples is here expressed, seem to be in common use with the Jews, when they would extol the peculiar attainments of a man, especially in matters of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Thus, it being told R. Jochanan ben Zaccai of some persons that had expounded the work of Mercavah, that is, the beginning of Ezekiel's prophecy, and the mysterious passages in it, and what befell them, expressed himself thus concerning them (n);

"blessed are you, and blessed are your children, , "and blessed are the eyes that so see".''

And elsewhere (o) mention being made of a book of secrets delivered to Solomon, and which he had understanding of, it is said,

, "blessed is the eye that sees, and the ear that hears", and the heart that understands, and causes to understand, the wisdom of it.''

(n) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 14. 2. (o) Sepher Raziel, fol. 34. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Ver. 15. For this people’s heart, &c.] A fat heart is a fearful plague. "Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law," Psa 119:70. None can delight in God’s law that are fat-hearted. Feeding cattle, we know, are most brutish and blockish. And physiognomers observe, that a full and fat heart betokens a dull and doltish disposition. Eglon’s fat paunch would not part with the poniard: and Pliny tells of bears so fat that they felt not the sharpest prickles.

Their ears are dull of hearing] So were the disbelieving Hebrews, for the which they are much taxed and tutored by the apostle. {a} Surdaster erat M. Crassus; sed illud peius, quod male audiebat, saith Cicero. These here hear very ill, for their no better hearing.

Their eyes they have closed] Or they wink hard with their eyes: they shut the windows, lest the light should come in: ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant, they do not what they might, toward the work. (Bern.)

Lest at any time they should see] See we may here (in that which they should have seen and done) the right order of repentance to salvation never to be repented of. The blind eye is opened, the deaf ear unstopped, the dull heart affected, &c. God first puts his laws into men’s minds, that they may know them, and then writes the same in their hearts, that they may have the comfort, feeling, and fruition of them. And then it is, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people," Heb 8:10.

{a} Νωθροι ταις ακοαις, Heb 5:11.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And should be converted. In this the prophet shews the atrocity of the Jewish wickedness, and the malice of their hearts, but that he may attach them to God, their Father, he immediately subjoins, lest being converted, I should heal them; and this he says, in order to manifest to them the goodness of God, if they would repent. (St. John Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- There is some difference between the text of Isaias, given by St. Matthew, and the original. But we have elsewhere observed, that the evangelists attend more to the sense than the words. The Septuagint have translated this text in the same manner. The prophecy here mentioned regarded the Jews in the time of Isaias, according to the strict letter, but still more particularly the Jews in the time of Christ. (Bible de Vence) --- They were authors of their own blindness, sin, damnation, and not Jesus Christ, as Calvin teaches. See also Acts of the Apostles, xxviii. and Romans. i. and ix. 18. &c. God is not the author of evil. (Bristow)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

15. For this people’s heart is waxed gross — The reason is now given why those withholdings of truth are inflicted. The minds of the people had grown too gross to receive it. For instance, had the parable of the mustard seed been explained to the Pharisees as indicating that the Gospel would yet fill the earth, it would only have excited their additional hostility, and hastened their purpose of accusing him as intending to subvert the existing government. As their purpose had become too fixed, and their hearts too hard to enter into the spirit and plan of the kingdom of God, its teachings must remain mysteries to them. Dull of hearing — That is, of hearing what was most deeply essential to their good. Their eyes they have closed — It is they who have done it. Their blindness is wilful. They close their own eyes to the beauty of the Gospel, and therefore its real principles must be kept from them. I should heal them — As I would gladly do, if they would but allow it to be done.

It is the law of God’s spiritual kingdom, that resistance to truth hardens the heart. To brace their minds against the truth and to defend themselves in opposition to it, they arm themselves with countless falsehoods. Their minds thereby get into that state that it benefits them not; nay, even damages and condemns them. It may be then even a mercy to withhold it from them. They may use it to evil purposes, and it may bring them into greater sin. Or they may have so insulted it that they have by their own heinous guilt rendered themselves, like the damned in hell, unworthy of it.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this people"s heart is waxed gross. There are two ways of understanding this verse as it comes here.

(1) It states the reason why God pronounced the judgment of ver. 14. The people"s heart had already become fat, lest (mh pote will then express the effect from the Divine point of view) they should see, etc.

(2) It merely enlarges the statement of ver. 14, expanding its meaning: (for this force of gar , cf. Mar_2:15 Luk_18:32) their heart is waxed fat (by God"s judgment for preceding sins), lest they should see, etc. This second explanation is preferable, for it alone suits the imperative found in the Hebrew. (cf. the transitive verbs in Joh_12:40) and is strictly parallel to the introductory vers. 11-13, which do not dwell upon the causes of God"s judgment. And their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest at any time (Mat_4:6, note) they should see; perceive (Revised Version) to recall the same word in ver. 14. With their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart. Bengel calls attention to the order; first came heart, ears, eyes; here, eyes, ears, heart. "A corde corruptio manat in aures et oculos: per oculos et aures sanitas pervenit ad cor." And should be converted; and should turn again (Revised Version, epistreqwsi); for "to be converted" has acquired too technical a meaning. And I should heal them (kai iasomai autouv). The verb is still dependent on the lest, (cf. Mat_5:25 Mat_7:6) but the future brings out the certainty of God"s healing them on their turning, etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. ἰάσομαι, for ἰάσωμαι. The latter reading is due to the influence of grammatical uniformity, or an itacism, confusion of vowels that have a similar sound.

15. ἐπαχύνθη ἡ καρδία. The heart, regarded by the ancients as the seat of intelligence, has become gross or fat, and so closed against the perception of spiritual truth.

μήποτε ἴδωσιν … ἰάσομαι. For the sequence of the subjunctive and future indicative co-ordinately after a final particle, cp. Rev 22:14, μακάριοι οἱ πλύνοντες τὰς στολὰς αὐτῶν, ἵνα ἔσται ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτῶν … καὶ εἰσέλθωσιν. For the future, among other passages, cp. Gal 2:4, where the best editors read ἵνα ἡμᾶς καταδουλώσουσιν. See Winer, p. 361. In the classics the future indicative in pure final clauses is found after ὅπως and ὄφρα, never after ἵνα or ὡς, and very seldom after the simple μή. Goodwin’s Moods and Tenses, p. 68. Elmsley, however (Eur. Bacch., p. 164) does not admit the exception of ἵνα. See Winer, loc. cit. above. In the N.T. ὅπως occurs with the future, Matt. ch. Mat 26:59, and, on good MS. authority, Rom 3:4. As distinguished from the subjunctive in such instances the future indicative implies a more permanent condition.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15.] This prophecy is quoted with a similar reference Joh 12:40: Act 28:26, Act 28:27; see also Rom 11:8.

ἀναπληροῦται, is being fulfilled, ‘finds one of the stages of its fulfilment:’ a partial one having taken place in the contemporaries of the prophet. The prophecy is cited verbatim from the LXX, which changes the imperative of the Hebrew (‘Make the heart of this people fat,’ &c., E. V.) into the indicative, as bearing the same meaning.

αὐτοῖς is a dat. of relation, ‘with regard to them:’ see Kühner, Gramm. § 581.

ἐπαχύνθη, grew fat; from prosperity:—‘torpens, omni sensu carens’ (Simonis Lex. under שָׁמַן).

βαρέως ἤκουσαν, heard heavily, sluggishly and imperfectly.

ἐκάμμυσαν, closed (Heb. ‘smeared over’) their eyes. All this have they done: all this is increased in them by their continuing to do it, and all lest they should (and so that they cannot) hear, see, understand, and be saved.

ἰάσομαι αὐτ. = ἀφεθῇ αὐτοῖς Mark. This citation gives no countenance to the fatalist view of the passage, but rests the whole blame on the hard-heartedness and unreadiness of the hearers, which is of itself the cause why the very preaching of the word is a means of further darkening and condemning them (see 2Co 4:3, 2Co 4:4). On the fut. indic. after μήποτε, “verentis ne quid futurum sit, sed indicantis simul, putare se ita futurum esse ut veretur,” see Winer, § 56. 2: Herm. ad Soph. Aj. 272.

16,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is waxed gross [επαχυνθη] . Lit., was made fat. Wyc., enfatted.

Are dull of hearing [τοις ωσιν βαρεως ηκουσαν] . Lit., They heard heavily with their ears.

They have closed [εκαμμυσαν] , kata, down, muw, to close, as in musthria above. Our idiom shuts up the eyes. The Greek shuts them down. The Hebrew, in Isa 6:10, is besmear. This insensibility is described as a punishment. Compare Isa 29:10; Isa 44:18; in both of which the closing of the eyes is described as a judgment of God. Sealing up the eyes was an oriental punishment. Cheyne (" Isaiah ") cites the case of a son of the Great Mogul, who has his eyes sealed up three years by his father as a punishment. Dante pictures the envious, on the second cornice of Purgatory, with their eyes sewed up :

"For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild Is done, because it will not quiet stay." Purg., 13 70 - 72.

Be converted [επιστρεψωσιν] . Rev., turn again; ejpi, to or toward, strefw, to turn; with the idea of their turning from their evil toward God.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.