What Does Isaiah 6:9 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse reveals that contact with a message is not the same as discerning it: ears and eyes can be open while its meaning remains unrecognized.
THE MEANING
The verse names an exposed gap: you can hear words and see what is before you while their meaning remains unrecognized. Repetition increases contact, but it does not guarantee discernment; perception has not yet become knowing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing something repeatedly or seeing it clearly means you have understood it.
THE ROOT
תָּבִינוּ
tāvînû
GROWS FROM
ב־י־ן
b-y-n
To distinguish or discern.
The root opens “understand” as discernment: the ability to make out what is before you. The verse’s problem is not lack of sensory contact, but the failure of that contact to become recognition.
ALSO GROWS
binah: Understanding, discernment
בִּינָה
This branch names the discernment that the verse says remains absent.
tevunah: Understanding, insight
תְּבוּנָה
It extends the same root’s sense of perceiving distinctions and grasping what something means.
שִׁמְעוּ שָׁמוֹעַ
shimʿu shāmōaʿ
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, and heed.
“hear indeed” in this verse is shimʿu shāmōaʿ. The repeated root intensifies the hearing: the ear receives again and again, while understanding is still withheld. This root can carry listening that answers, so the verse exposes a break between hearing and response.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This branch carries the responsive sense of hearing, which the verse separates from mere exposure to sound.
shemuʿah: Report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
A report can reach someone’s ears without becoming something they truly recognize or heed.
תֵּדָעוּ
tēdāʿû
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know or recognize through encounter.
“perceive” in this verse is tēdāʿû. The final verb points toward knowing that comes through encounter, not simply sight landing on an object. Seeing has occurred, yet recognition has not.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge
דַּעַת
This noun shows the knowing that perception has not yet reached.
yōdēaʿ: One who knows
יוֹדֵעַ
The participle describes a knower, highlighting the distance between seeing something and truly recognizing it.
THE PATTERN
Perception can be present while inward discernment remains closed.
Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?THE THREAD
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.The next verse repeats the same roots for hearing, seeing, and understanding, then carries the movement through the heart, turning, and healing. The repeated verbs show that perception is not the endpoint: what is heard and seen can move inward into understanding, turning, and healing.
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