For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
The spirit of deep sleep. Yahweh gives them up judicially to their own hardness of heart (cf. Zechariah 14:13). Quoted by Paul, with variations, from the Septuagint (Romans 11:8). See Isaiah 6:10; Psalms 69:23.
The prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered with a veil of darkness. The prophets and seers at that time had obtained for themselves a kind of rule over the people (Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 26:8.) "Your ruler" - literally, your heads (margin: see also Isaiah 3:2). 'He hath covered;'-the Orientals cover the head to sleep. Thus "covered" is parallel to "closed your eyes" (Judges 4:19). Covering the face was also preparatory to execution (Esther 7:8). Here the covering is the prelude to God's judgments on them. This cannot apply to the time when Isaiah himself prophesied, but to subsequent times.