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Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues to explain to his disciples why he teaches in parables.

General Information:

In verse 14, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that the people's failure to understand Jesus' teaching is a fulfillment of prophecy.

to them ... they

All occurrences of "them" and "they" refer to the people in the crowd.

Though they are seeing, they do not see; and though they are hearing, they do not hear, or understand.

Jesus uses this parallelism to tell and emphasize to the disciples that the crowd refuses to understand God's truth. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)

Though they are seeing

Possible meanings are 1) this refers to them seeing what Jesus does. AT: "Though they see what I do" or 2) this refers to their ability to see. AT: "Though they are able to see"

they do not see

Here "see" represents understanding. AT: "they do not understand" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)

though they are hearing

Possible meanings are 1) this refers to them hearing what Jesus teaches. AT: "Though they hear what I say" or 2) this refers to their ability to hear. AT: "Though they are able to hear"

they do not hear

Here "hear" represents listening well. AT: "they do not listen well" or "they do not pay attention" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)

To them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, that which says

This can be stated in active form. AT: "They are fulfilling what God said long ago through the prophet Isaiah"

While hearing you will hear, but you will in no way understand; while seeing you will see, but you will in no way perceive

This begins a quote from the prophet Isaiah about the unbelieving people of Isaiah's day. Jesus is using this quote to describe the very crowd that was listening to him. These statements are again parallel and emphasize that the people refuse to understand God's truth. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)

While hearing you will hear, but you will in no way understand

"You will hear things, but you will not understand them." You can make explicit what the people will hear. AT: "You will hear what God says through the prophets, but you will not understand its true meaning" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit)

while seeing you will see, but you will in no way perceive

You can make explicit what the people will see. AT: "you will see what God does through the prophets, but you will not understand it" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit)

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