Isaiah is commissioned as Yahweh’s prophet with the words in verses 9-10. The LORD tells him that those who hear his message will not really listen to it or understand it. Verse 9 contains the two primary verbs hear and see. They reappear in the next verse with their meaning given more fully. The underlying purpose of the commands here has to be seen in light of the next verse (see the introductory comments there).
Verses 9-10 have two levels of quotation. The LORD speaks to Isaiah, but inside his speech he tells Isaiah what to say to the people (verse 9b). Some languages may prefer to have only one level here. Good News Translation provides a good model for this.
Go and say to this people: Isaiah expressed his willingness to be a divine messenger, and now he is accepted and simply told by Yahweh to Go and give the people a message. This people refers to the Israelites. It is the first time this kind of impersonal reference is made. Usually when Yahweh speaks about the people of Israel, he refers to them as “my people” (see 1.3; 3.12, 15; 5.13).
Hear and hear, but do not understand: This is the first of two emphatic parallel statements that make up Yahweh’s message. The prophet first has to call the people to listen to what he has to say. This line is literally “Listen to listen, but do not understand.” The grammatical construction of the first part gives emphasis to the verb hear. So Hear and hear may be rendered “Listen closely” or “Hear it again and again!” Many languages will require an object here, in which case a general object such as “my words” or “what I say” is best.
But do not understand is a negative command in Hebrew. It orders the people not to understand, which seems to contradict the purpose of speaking to them. However, the Hebrew imperative does have other functions than just giving orders. One function is to express sarcasm (see examples of this in 1 Kgs 2.22 and Amos 4.4). If it is used this way here, then this clause may be rendered “but don’t think you will understand it!” Another function of the imperative is to indicate some future event or situation (see 2 Kgs 19.29, where the imperatives have a future meaning: “… then in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit”). This leads to the following rendering here: “but you will not understand!” This latter possibility is the probable sense of the command here and we recommend following it. The LORD is warning Isaiah that his preaching will have little effect. More than that, it will harden his listeners even more. Revised English Bible and Contemporary English Version adopt this understanding. Revised English Bible says “However hard you listen, you will never understand” (similarly New English Bible [New English Bible]), and Contemporary English Version has “You will listen and listen, but never understand.” So the prophet is told to call on the people to listen closely, but at the same time he is to tell them that they won’t comprehend the real meaning of his words. Bible en français courant plays on the difference between “listen” and “hear” to express this, saying “You may listen as much as you like, you will not hear.”
See and see, but do not perceive follows the same form in Hebrew as the previous line. Its meaning is similar as well. See seems to imply that, like other prophets, Isaiah will actually act out his message, thereby challenging his onlookers to give a response. On the other hand, there is also the possibility that see is used figuratively here with the sense of discover or understand. The people will not perceive (literally “not know”) or comprehend the full meaning of what they observe with their eyes. Like the verb hear, see may require an object in some languages. If so, translators should add an object that is parallel to the previous one, for example, “my deeds” or “what I do.” Bible en français courant has a line parallel to the first one: “You may observe as much as you like, you will not see.”
For the translation of this verse we suggest:
• Then Yahweh said to me: “Go and tell these people,
‘Listen closely [to what I say], but you will not understand;
look carefully [at what I do], but you will never comprehend.’
• Yahweh then said: “Go to these people and say,
‘Listen carefully [to my words] though you will never understand [them];
observe closely [my deeds] though you will never comprehend [them].’
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 .