No one is more blind than my servant Israel or more deaf than the messenger I send. No one is more blind than the person I own or more blind than the servant of the Lord.
I make the messages of my servants come true; I make the advice of my messengers come true. I say to Jerusalem, ‘People will live in you again!’ I say to the towns of Judah, ‘You will be built again!’ I say to Jerusalem’s ruins, ‘I will repair you.’
The leaders who are to guard the people are blind; they don’t know what they are doing. All of them are like quiet dogs that don’t know how to bark. They lie down and dream and love to sleep.
Then the Lord said, “Go and tell this to the people: ‘You will listen and listen, but you will not understand. You will look and look, but you will not learn.’
The Lord says, “My people are foolish. They do not know me. They are stupid children; they don’t understand. They are skillful at doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
“Human, you are living among a people who refuse to obey. They have eyes to see, but they do not see, and they have ears to hear, but they do not hear, because they are a people who refuse to obey.
“He has blinded their eyes, and he has closed their minds. Otherwise they would see with their eyes and understand in their minds and come back to me and be healed.”
Jesus said, “I came into this world so that the world could be judged. I came so that the blind would see and so that those who see will become blind.”
I want you to understand this secret, brothers and sisters, so you will understand that you do not know everything: Part of Israel has been made stubborn, but that will change when many who are not Jews have come to God.
The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God.