Now Yahweh reveals how his people reject his teaching: they do it by refusing to accept the messages of his prophets. Revised Standard Version continues the sentence of the previous verse here, but for many languages it will be better to begin a new sentence, as in Good News Translation.

Who say to the seers, “See not”: Seers is another term for “prophet.” The word seers emphasizes that these people receive visions from Yahweh and communicate them to the people. However, the rebellious people of Judah do not wish to know what Yahweh has revealed to the seers. They even order the seers not to see visions at all. Of course, the seers cannot be prevented from seeing them. So the command See not means that the people want them to stop revealing what they see from Yahweh.

And to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us what is right: The verb say in the previous line may be repeated here for clarity by beginning with “and they say to the prophets….” The Hebrew noun for prophets and the verb for Prophesy (twice) come from a root that usually means “to see [a vision]” (see 29.10, where the word for prophets is rendered “seers”). So some commentators prefer the noun “visionaries” in place of the more common term prophets. Since the Hebrew words for seers and prophets have the same meaning, Good News Translation combines them. The people order the prophets not to reveal what is right, referring to things that are honest and straightforward. This implies they are not to disclose what Yahweh shows them. For the first two lines Revised English Bible has “They say to the seers, ‘You are not to see,’ and to those who have visions, ‘Do not produce true visions for us….’”

Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions: Smooth things are actually “flattery,” complimentary words that people like to hear. Prophesy illusions is literally “see illusions.” The people prefer the prophets to have visions of unreal things rather than real warnings from Yahweh. They want to hear false things that will make them feel good. Good News Translation‘s translation is a good model here.

The direct speech of the people may be rendered indirectly if the language requires it. See the second example below.

Some translation examples for this verse are:

• They say to the seers, “Don’t see things!”
They tell the visionaries, “Don’t give us visions of what is true!
Tell us things that flatter,
see those things that will delude us.

• They tell the seers not to see things,
and tell the visionaries not to give visions of reality.
Instead, they tell them to say flattering things,
and to see things that are illusions.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .