Isa 44:18 | KD | STEP | So irrational is idolatry; but yet, through self-hardening, they have fallen under the judgment of hardness of heart ( ; ; ), and have been given up to a reprobate mind ( ). “They perceive not, and do not understand: for their eyes are smeared over, so that they do not see; their hearts, so that they do not understand. And men take it not to heart, no perception and no understanding, that men should say, The half of it I have burned in the fire, and also baked bread upon the coals thereof; roasted flesh, and eaten: and ought I to make the rest of it an abomination, to fall down before the produce of a tree?” Instead of טח, , the third person is written טח (from tâchach , Ges. §72, Anm. 8) in a circumstantial sense: their eyes are, as it were, smeared over with plaster. The expression אל־לב השׁיב or על־לב ( ), literally to carry back into the heart, which we find as well as על־לב שׂים, to take to heart ( ), answers exactly to the idea of reflection, here with reference to the immense contrast between a piece of wood and the Divine Being. The second and third לא in introduce substantive clauses, just as verbal clauses are introduced by ואין. לאמר is used in the same manner as in : “perception and insight showing themselves in their saying.” On būl , see ; the meaning “block” cannot be established: the talmudic būl , a lump or piece, which Ewald adduces, is the Greek βῶλος.

‏ Isaiah 44:18

So irrational is idolatry; but yet, through self-hardening, they have fallen under the judgment of hardness of heart (Isa 6:9-10; Isa 19:3; Isa 29:10), and have been given up to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28). “They perceive not, and do not understand: for their eyes are smeared over, so that they do not see; their hearts, so that they do not understand. And men take it not to heart, no perception and no understanding, that men should say, The half of it I have burned in the fire, and also baked bread upon the coals thereof; roasted flesh, and eaten: and ought I to make the rest of it an abomination, to fall down before the produce of a tree?” Instead of טח, Lev 14:42, the third person is written טח (from tâchach, Ges. §72, Anm. 8) in a circumstantial sense: their eyes are, as it were, smeared over with plaster. The expression אל־לב השׁיב or על־לב (Isa 46:8), literally to carry back into the heart, which we find as well as על־לב שׂים, to take to heart (Isa 42:25), answers exactly to the idea of reflection, here with reference to the immense contrast between a piece of wood and the Divine Being. The second and third לא in Isa 44:19 introduce substantive clauses, just as verbal clauses are introduced by ואין. לאמר is used in the same manner as in Isa 9:8 : “perception and insight showing themselves in their saying.” On būl, see Job 40:20; the meaning “block” cannot be established: the talmudic būl, a lump or piece, which Ewald adduces, is the Greek βῶλος.