Isaiah 29:12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," they will answer, "I don't know how to read."

◄ Isaiah 29:12 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," they will answer, "I don't know how to read."

English Standard Version
And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

New American Standard Bible
Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, "Please read this." And he will say, "I cannot read."

King James Bible
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, "I can't read."

International Standard Version
Or when they give the book to someone who cannot read, and say, 'Read this, please,' he answers, 'I don't know how to read.'"

American Standard Version
and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters.

Darby Bible Translation
And they give the book to him that cannot read, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot read.

Young's Literal Translation
And the book is given to him who hath not known books, Saying, 'Read this, we pray thee,' And he hath said, 'I have not known books.'

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

29:9-16 The security of sinners in sinful ways, is cause for lamentation and wonder. The learned men, through prejudice, said that the Divine prophecies were obscure; and the poor urged their want of learning. The Bible is a sealed book to every man, learned or unlearned, till he begins to study it with a simple heart and a teachable spirit, that he may thence learn the truth and the will of God. To worship God, is to approach him. And if the heart be full of his love and fear, out of the abundance of it the mouth will speak; but there are many whose religion is lip-labour only. When they pretend to be speaking to God, they are thinking of a thousand foolish things. They worship the God of Israel according to their own devices. Numbers are only formal in worship. And their religion is only to comply with custom, and to serve their own interest. But the wanderings of mind, and defects in devotion, which are the believer's burden, are very different from the withdrawing of the heart from God, so severely blamed. And those who make religion no more than a pretence, to serve a turn, deceive themselves. And as those that quarrel with God, so those that think to conceal themselves from him, in effect charge him with folly. But all their perverse conduct shall be entirely done away.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

12. The unlearned succeed no better than the learned, not from want of human learning, as they fancy, but from not having the teaching of God (Isa 54:13; Jer 31:34; Joh 6:45; 1Co 2:7-10; 1Jo 2:20).