Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

Bible References

The heart

Isaiah 29:10

For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed your eyes, [you who are] the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, [you who are] the seers.
Isaiah 63:17

O Lord, why do You cause us to stray from Your ways
And harden our heart from fearing You [with reverence and awe]?
Return for Your servants’ sake, the tribes of Your heritage.
Exodus 7:3
And I will make Pharaoh’s heart hard, and multiply My signs and My wonders (miracles) in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 10:27
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go.
Exodus 11:10
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders (miracles) before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the Israelites go out of his land.
Exodus 14:17
As for Me, hear this: I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in [the sea] after them; and I will be glorified and honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and his war-chariots and his horsemen.
Deuteronomy 2:30
But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to travel through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to hand him over to you, as he is today.
Ezekiel 3:6
not to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you and pay attention to My message;
2 Corinthians 2:16
to the latter one an aroma from death to death [a fatal, offensive odor], but to the other an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is adequate and sufficiently qualified for these things?

Fat

Deuteronomy 32:15

“But Jeshurun (Israel) became fat and kicked [at God].
You became fat, thick, sleek, and obstinate!
Then he abandoned God who had made him,
And scorned the Rock of his salvation.
Psalm 17:10

They have closed their unfeeling heart [to kindness and compassion];
With their mouths they speak proudly and make presumptuous claims.

Ears heavy

Jeremiah 6:10

To whom shall I (Jeremiah) speak and give warning
That they may hear?
Behold, their ears are closed [absolutely deaf to God]
And they cannot listen.
Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reprimand and an object of scorn to them;
They have no delight in it.
Zechariah 7:11
But they refused to listen and pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder [stiffening themselves in resistance] and stopped up their ears.

Convert

Isaiah 19:22
The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing it; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to them and heal them.
Matthew 13:15

For this nation’s heart has grown hard,
And with their ears they hardly hear,
And they have [tightly] closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, and turn [to Me]
And I would heal them [spiritually].’

General references

Exodus 10:20
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart [so that it was even more resolved and obstinate], and he did not let the Israelites go.
Deuteronomy 28:28
The Lord will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart and mind;
Deuteronomy 29:4
Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart and mind to understand, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.