And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
All of these visions have become like a sealed book to you. When people give it to someone who can read and say, 'Please read this,' he replies, 'I can't read it because it's sealed shut.'
The writer is saying that God's messages have become completely incomprehensible to the people, like a book that's locked up and can't be opened even by educated readers.
📚 Historical Context
Isaiah was prophesying to the people of Judah during a time of threat from the Assyrian empire, warning them about their spiritual blindness and reliance on human alliances rather than God. In this verse, the image of a sealed book illustrates how God's visions had become incomprehensible to even the educated, symbolizing the people's hardened hearts and inability to grasp divine truth. This reflects the ancient cultural practice of sealing documents for security, which Isaiah used to convey a deeper message of judgment and ignorance.
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