Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:
Ver. 26. Hearing, ye shall hear, &c.] A heavy ear is a singular judgment. Antagoras, cum Thebaidos librum apud Boeotos recitaret, nec quisquam recitanti applauderet, complicato volumine, Merito, inquit, Boeoti vocamini, quia boum habetis aures. (Erasm. Chiliad.) The Greeks have a proverb, Asino quispiam narrabat fabulam, ac ille movebat aures.
Seeing, ye shall see] Speculatively.
And not perceive] i.e. Practically, as given over for their wilfulness to spiritual blindness.