---
title: Isaiah 6:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-6-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-6-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 6:10
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 6:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

## JW Usage

Like 6:9, the JW reading treats this verse as a description of rejection — God's word hardens those who refuse it. The verse is used to comfort Witnesses encountering opposition in their ministry. The decisive New Testament use of the verse — five times across the Gospels, John, and Acts — is largely unaddressed because each NT use is tied to the rejection of Jesus, not to any successor body's reception.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 6:10 is the most-quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. Jesus quotes it (Matthew 13:14-15, Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10); John quotes it (John 12:40); Paul quotes it as the closing word of Acts (Acts 28:26-27). Its New Testament use is uniformly about Israel's rejection of *Jesus* as Messiah — and John 12:41 supplies the inspired commentary: "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him." The same prophetic vision that produced 6:10 produced 6:1-5, and John identifies the throne-room figure as Jesus. The doorstep form: "Even your jw.org footnote on John 12:40 links back to Isaiah 6:10 — the Watchtower itself connects the two passages. The question is what John says they connect to: he says the glory Isaiah saw was Jesus's."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Isaiah Saw Jesus' Glory](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john12-isaiah6.md) — John 12:41 / Isaiah 6 [Deity of Christ]