Acts 28:26

Verse

‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

American Standard Version (1901)

saying, Go thou unto this people, and say, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:

Bible in Basic English

Go to this people and say, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:

Douay-Rheims 1899

Saying: Go to this people, and say to them: With the ear you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.

Free Bible Version

‘Go to these people and tell them: Even though you hear, you won't ever understand, and even though you see, you won't ever comprehend.

Geneva Bible 1599

Saying, Goe vnto this people, and say, By hearing ye shall heare, and shall not vnderstand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceiue.

King James (Authorized) Version

Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

Plain English Version

‘Go to the Jewish people and say, “You keep on hearing God’s words with your ears, but you don’t understand them properly. It’s like your ears are going deaf. You keep on looking with your eyes, and you see God doing things, but you don’t understand what you see. It’s like you closed your eyes. Your problem is that you don’t want to know God’s message. If you do understand God’s message properly, you will turn around and come back to him, and then God will not say you are guilty for the bad things you did. But you mob don’t want to come back to God.” ’ That’s what Isaiah wrote.”

Translation for Translators

Go to your fellow Israelites and tell them, ‘You repeatedly listen to the message of God, but you never understand what God is saying. You repeatedly look at and see the things that God is doing, but you never understand what they mean.

Unlocked Literal Bible

He said, 'Go to this people and say, “By hearing you will hear, but not understand; and seeing you will see, but will not perceive.

Noah Webster Bible

Saying, Go to this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.

World English Bible

saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.

Young's Literal Translation

saying, Go on unto this people and say, With hearing ye shall hear, and ye shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and ye shall not perceive,

Context

Paul Preaches at Rome

²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit was right when He spoke to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: ²⁶‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” ²⁷For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

Summary

In Acts 28:26, Paul quotes from the prophet Isaiah, declaring that the hearts of the Jewish people have become calloused, their ears dull of hearing, and their eyes closed. This signifies a spiritual blindness and deafness to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Despite Paul's efforts to share the Gospel with them, many remained hardened in unbelief, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. This verse highlights the importance of having open hearts, ears, and eyes to receive and understand the truth of God's Word, lest we fall into spiritual blindness and miss out on the salvation offered through Jesus.

Commentary

Adam Clarke
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Hearing ye shall hear, etc. - See the notes on Mat 13:14, and Joh 12:39, Joh 12:40.

John Gill Bible Commentary

Saying, go unto this people, and say,.... A message sent in wrath and judgment to the people of Israel, rejected from being the people of God, a "lo ammi" being written upon them; and therefore God does not call them "his", but "this" people: and this message was sent by an evangelical prophet, who foretold, in the clearest manner, the Messiah's incarnation, and birth of a virgin, the work he was to do, the sufferings he should undergo, and the glory that should follow; and that after he had seen in a vision the glory of the King Messiah, the perfections of deity filling the temple of his human nature, him exalted on a throne, and attended and worshipped by angels; after he had had such a view of his beauty and excellency, that laid him low in his own sight, and humbled him under a sense of his own impurity and unworthiness; and after he had had a comfortable discovery and application of pardoning grace; and after he had expressed such a readiness and willingness to go on the Lord's errand: which one might have thought would have been of a different nature; and that he would have been sent, and have been made useful, to set forth the glories and excellencies of Christ's person, office, and grace, he had had such a view of; and to preach the comfortable doctrine of pardoning grace to men, which he had just now such a gracious experience of; but on the contrary, he is bid to say, hearing ye shall hear; with bodily ears, the Gospel preached by the Messiah and his apostles: and shall not understand, spiritually and experimentally, what they heard: to have an opportunity of hearing the Gospel, is a great blessing; seeing it is good news, glad tidings of good things, a joyful sound, and the voice of Christ himself; it is a distinguishing favour, and what all men at all times have not; when it is attended with a divine energy, the Spirit of God is received through it, regeneration, quickening and sanctifying grace are by it; faith comes by hearing it, and Christ is found under the ministration of it; and, generally speaking, the understanding and knowledge of divine things, are by means of it: men are naturally without the understanding of spiritual things, and where the Gospel is not, they remain so; the ministers of the Gospel, and the word preached by them, are the means of leading men into a spiritual understanding of things, though only as, and when attended with the Spirit of God, who is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Christ: and a special mercy it is when persons, whilst hearing the word, understand what they hear, and can distinguish truth from error; and approve of the truth, receive the love of it, feel the power, and taste the sweetness of it; find it and eat it, believe, embrace, and profess it, and bring forth fruits worthy of it: but on the contrary, when it is heard and not understood, it is an awful dispensation; for hence either they content themselves with bare hearing, and depend upon it for salvation; or they despise and speak evil of what they do not understand; and so their hearing, instead of being a blessing, is an aggravation of their condemnation: and seeing ye shall see: miracles wrought: and not perceive; them to be proofs of the things, for which they are wrought: so Jarchi expounds those words, "ye shall see the wonders, or miracles I have done for you, and shall not set your hearts to know me'' from whence it appears that the Gospel preached in the clearest and most powerful manner, and even miracles wrought in confirmation of it, are insufficient for conversion; and nothing will effect it, but efficacious grace.

Acts 28:26

Paul Preaches at Rome

Scripture
Sermons
Commentary

Berean Standard Bible

‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

American Standard Version (1901)

saying, Go thou unto this people, and say, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:

Bible in Basic English

Go to this people and say, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:

Douay-Rheims 1899

Saying: Go to this people, and say to them: With the ear you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.

Free Bible Version

‘Go to these people and tell them: Even though you hear, you won't ever understand, and even though you see, you won't ever comprehend.

Geneva Bible 1599

Saying, Goe vnto this people, and say, By hearing ye shall heare, and shall not vnderstand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceiue.

King James (Authorized) Version

Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

Plain English Version

Translation for Translators

Unlocked Literal Bible

He said, 'Go to this people and say, “By hearing you will hear, but not understand; and seeing you will see, but will not perceive.

Noah Webster Bible

Saying, Go to this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.

World English Bible

saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.

Young's Literal Translation

saying, Go on unto this people and say, With hearing ye shall hear, and ye shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and ye shall not perceive,

Adam Clarke
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Hearing ye shall hear, etc. - See the notes on Mat 13:14, and Joh 12:39, Joh 12:40.

John Gill Bible Commentary

Acts 28:26

Verse

Context

Paul Preaches at Rome

Summary

Commentary

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

John Gill Bible Commentary

Acts 28:26

Paul Preaches at Rome

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

John Gill Bible Commentary