Isaiah 6:9
Isaiah 6:99And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Isaiah's commission to a people who "will hear but not understand" is treated by JWs as a paradigm for the rejection that Jehovah's representatives meet — including the rejection JWs themselves encounter in field service. The verse becomes an explanation for resistance to the Watchtower's preaching work and is rarely pressed for its New Testament fulfilment.
is one of the most-cited Old Testament passages in the New Testament, applied to Christ's ministry by the Synoptic Gospels (, , ), by Jesus himself, by , and by Paul at . The hardening prophecy is fulfilled in Israel's rejection of the Messiah. then closes the loop: the hardening Isaiah saw was the hardening that would come on those who rejected Jesus, and "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him." The prophecy's content is the rejection of Jesus; the prophecy's source is the throne-room vision of Jesus's glory.