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The eyes of those who see shall not be blinded,
    and the ears of those who hear shall listen.
The heart also of the hasty shall understand knowledge,
    and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
The vile person shall no more be called noble,
    nor the rogue be spoken of as generous;
for the vile person will speak nonsense,
    and his heart will work iniquity:
to practice hypocrisy
    and to utter error against the Lord,
to keep the hungry unsatisfied
    and to withhold drink from the thirsty.
The instruments also of the rogue are evil;
    he devises wicked schemes
to destroy the poor with lying words,
    even when the needy speaks right.
But the noble devises noble things,
    and by noble things he stands.

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And the eyes of those who see will not gaze,[a]
    and the ears of those who hear will listen.
And the minds[b] of the rash will understand knowledge,[c]
    and the tongues[d] of stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
A fool will no longer be called noble,
    and a scoundrel will not be said to be eminent.
For a fool speaks folly,
    and his mind[e] does iniquity:
to behave wickedly,[f]
    and to speak error concerning Yahweh,
to leave the throat of the hungry empty,
    and he deprives the thirsty of drink.
And a scoundrel, his weapons are evil;
    he plans evil devices
to ruin the poor with words of deception
    even[g] when the speech of the needy is right.
But[h] the nobleman plans noble things,
    and he stands upon noble things.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 32:3 The same consonants with different vowels would be translated “be blinded,” which fits the context better
  2. Isaiah 32:4 Literally “heart”
  3. Isaiah 32:4 Literally “to know”
  4. Isaiah 32:4 Hebrew “tongue”
  5. Isaiah 32:6 Literally “heart”
  6. Isaiah 32:6 Literally “do ungodliness”
  7. Isaiah 32:7 Or “and”
  8. Isaiah 32:8 Or “And”