Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
Yea, thou heardest not - repeated, as also 'thou knewest not,' (cf. Isaiah 48:5, end) from last verse.
Yea, from that time (that) thine ear was not opened. Omit that. 'yea, from the first thine ear did not open itself'-namely, to obey them (Rosenmuller). "To open the ear" denotes obedient attention (Isaiah 50:5). Rather, 'Thine ear was not opened by me to receive them' - i:e., they were not declared by me to thee previously; since, if thou hadst been informed of them, such is thy perversity, thou couldest not have been kept in check (Maurer). 'From that time' ( mee'aaz (H227)) the same Hebrew as "from the beginning" in Isaiah 48:7, "from of old."
For I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously. In the former view, the sense of the words following is, 'For I knew that if I had not foretold the destruction of Babylon so plainly that there could be no perverting of it, thou wouldest have perversely ascribed it to idols, or something else than to me' (Isaiah 48:5). Thus they would have relapsed into idolatry, to cure them of which the Babylonian captivity was sent: so they had done at Sinai (Exodus 32:4). After the return, and ever since, they have utterly forsaken idols. In Maurer's view, which I prefer, the sense is, 'I am giving thee, in addition to the former predictions which now are coming to pass, new predictions not heard by thee before, not on account of thy merits-for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously-but for mine own sake' (Isaiah 48:9-11).
And wast called - as thine appropriate appellation (Isaiah 9:6).
A transgressor from the womb - from the beginning of Israel's national existence (Isaiah 44:2).