‘And when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word, “Well spoke the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, Go you to this people, and say, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no wise understand, and seeing you will see, and will in no wise perceive, for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest, haply they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them.” '
Once he perceived that not all were in agreement with him, Paul, who thought the Scriptures involved crystal clear, reminded them of the words of Isaiah the prophet about the unwillingness of the ancient people of Israel to believe the truth. It had been true in the prophet's case. It was sad if it was true this day.
For it was the Holy Spirit Himself Who had said to their fathers through the prophets, ‘Tell the people that their hearing, their seeing and their hearts are at fault. Because of this they will hear and not understand, they will see and will not perceive.' And this in turn was because their hearts were fat with luxuries, their ears did not want to hear what did not please them, their eyes refused to believe what they did not want to see. And why was this? In the end it was because they loved their sin. They did not want to be healed and restored. Until that attitude was altered there could be no hope for them.
So now the choice was before them. They must decide if they wanted the truth, if they really wanted God's will, or whether they were just saving face and pretending that they did. Their choice was as to whether they would continue as Jews under condemnation by their own Scriptures, or whether they would respond to those Scriptures and become true Jews.
As with Isaiah 6:9-11 this was not a rejection but a warning. Paul is speaking to them as the new Isaiah. He and those who followed him would go on preaching to them until the final day of judgment It was they who must take heed to the condition of their ears, eyes and hearts. Now, however, the message was to go to a wider audience than that of Isaiah. The Gentiles also would hear, as Isaiah had later declared. The Servant had come (Isaiah 42:6-7; Isaiah 49:6).