to seal a person's eyes shut, as if smeared over, so that they cannot see
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
The picture behind this word is not a damaged eye but a covered one. Something is spread across the surface so that nothing gets through, the way plaster is spread across a wall. Isaiah is told to do to a nation's eyes what a workman does to a window he means to seal.
Both times it carries this sense it stands in a command, and both commands are bitter. In Isaiah 6:10 the prophet is sent with a message that will only harden the people who hear it. In Isaiah 29:9 the same order is turned back on the people themselves: go ahead, seal your own eyes. Either way the blindness is deliberate, not a misfortune that simply happened.
Hebrew already has a plain verb for blinding a person (עָוַר) and a plain verb for plastering a surface (טוּחַ), the one Isaiah 44:18 uses when God has smeared over the eyes of people who worship idols. This word sits between the two, and it takes its force from the plastering image.
Nuances
1ato seal another person's eyes shut so that they cannot see
Isa 6:10
1bto have one's own eyes sealed: to go blind, or to blind oneself
Isa 29:9 (2×)*
2
to delight: to take warm, playful pleasure in someone or something, or to give that pleasure to another
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This word is at home with small children. A nursing baby amuses himself over a snake's den; a child is carried on the hip and bounced on the knees. It belongs to the vocabulary of play and petting rather than to the vocabulary of formal joy, and the doubled sound of the Hebrew has the ring of a word a parent would say to a baby.
That is what makes its appearance in the Psalms striking. When the writer of Psalm 119 says he delights in God's commands, he reaches for a playful word rather than a dutiful one. In Psalm 94 the same word describes what God's comforts do to a mind crowded with anxious thoughts, which is close to what a parent's hands do for a fretful child.
Hebrew has several words for gladness and they do not overlap neatly:
Loud, visible rejoicing is carried by a different verb (שׂוּשׂ).
Wanting a thing and being pleased with it is a different verb again (חָפֵץ).
Soft, luxurious pleasure, the kind taken at a rich table, has its own verb (עָנֹג).
This one is the playful, hands-on member of that family, and the matching noun, the "delights" of Psalm 119 (שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים), keeps the same warmth.
Nuances
2ato take delight in something, to find one's pleasure in it
TranslatabilityApproximate
Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70
2bto give delight to someone, to cheer and soothe them
TranslatabilityApproximate
Psa 94:19
2cto play, to amuse oneself happily
TranslatabilityDirect
Isa 11:8
2dto be petted and bounced on the knees, as a small child is
pictures the eyes being sealed over from outside, like a surface smeared shut, rather than an eye that fails on its ownIsa 6:10
Both
both describe a person who cannot seeIsa 29:9
Only blind
in English "blind" usually names a condition a person is born with or suffers, with no hint that anyone did it to them
“shut”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“dandled”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“take pleasure”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How sha'a differs from similar Hebrew words
עָוַרthe plain verb for blinding a person, usually a punishment inflicted on a captive; this word instead pictures the eyes being smeared or sealed over so that nothing gets through.
Its ordinary meaning has nothing to do with sight at all: it is taking pleasure in something, above all in God's commands and in the comfort God gives when worries crowd in.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70Psa 94:19
It also covers safe, unthreatened play and being fondled, a nursing child amusing himself over a snake's hole and children bounced on the knee.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
Both
Both are used of eyes that are made unable to see: one for eyes put out, the other for eyes sealed or smeared shut, so both can fairly be rendered "blind" in English.2Ki 25:7Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
In both, the blindness is inflicted rather than inborn, and the point of it is a person left unable to judge or respond rightly: the bribed judge cannot see the case, and the sealed eyed people cannot see, understand, and turn back to be healed.Exo 23:8Isa 6:10
This is the word for actually destroying a person's sight, the eyes of a captured king put out by his conquerors so that his last sight is the killing of his sons.2Ki 25:7Jer 39:7Jer 52:11
It belongs to the law of the courtroom, naming what a bribe does to people who normally see a case clearly: it leaves the clear sighted and the wise unable to see straight.Exo 23:8Deu 16:19
טוּחַthe builder's verb for plastering a wall or a house; Isaiah 44:18 turns it on eyes smeared shut, which is the very image this word carries into Isaiah 6:10.
The same spelling also covers a second, unrelated word that has nothing to do with covering anything: warm, playful pleasure. A nursing baby amuses himself over a snake's den, and a small child is carried on the hip and bounced on the knees.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
In that pleasure sense it is the word a psalm writer reaches for when he says he takes his delight in God's commands, and the word for what God's comforts do to a mind crowded with anxious thoughts.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70Psa 94:19
When it does mean sealing something shut, the object is only ever a person's eyes. It is never spread on a wall, a house, or any other surface, so the coating is a picture and never a job of work.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both times it seals eyes it stands in a command, once given to the prophet about the people he is sent to and once turned back on the people themselves, so the blindness is ordered rather than merely reported.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both describe eyes smeared over so that nothing gets through, and both do it in Isaiah, of a people who look and do not see.Isa 44:18Isa 6:10
English Bibles render both as "shut" or "blind" when eyes are in view, which loses what the two words share: a substance spread across the eye, not a lid coming down.Isa 44:18Isa 29:9
This is the ordinary building word. A householder whose walls have been stripped back and repaired mixes fresh mortar and spreads it over the house until the surface is closed again, and the priest times his return inspection by it.Lev 14:42Lev 14:43Lev 14:48
It names the act rather than the substance, so it stretches to a covering of gold and refined silver spread over the walls of a building.1Ch 29:4
It carries Ezekiel's charge against prophets who run up a flimsy partition and coat it over so that from the street it looks like a wall that will stand, until the rain and hail wash the coat off and the wall goes down.Ezk 13:10Ezk 13:12Ezk 13:15Ezk 22:28
שׂוּשׂthe loud, visible rejoicing of a bridegroom or a festival crowd; this word is quieter and more physical, the pleasure of play and petting.
Names a quiet, private absorption: the settled pleasure of someone alone with what he loves and returning to it again and again, rather than any outward celebration.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70
Carries the hands-on tenderness of small children being petted and played with: an infant amusing itself over a snake's den, a child bounced on the knee.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
Describes pleasure that soothes rather than excites, the inward comfort that steadies a worried mind when anxious thoughts pile up.Psa 94:19
Has a dark twin use with no counterpart in the other word: to smear a person's eyes shut, or to blind oneself on purpose so that one cannot see or take anything in.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both are used for taking pleasure in God's own words and commands, standing a few lines apart in the same long psalm about the law.Psa 119:14Psa 119:162Psa 119:16Psa 119:47
Both name gladness with an object, a person being glad in or over something outside himself, which is why English Bibles render each of them with "rejoice" and with "delight".Psa 35:9Psa 94:19
Both fill out the same picture of a comforted Jerusalem in Isaiah 66, one for the city's public celebration and one for the tender handling of her children.Isa 66:10Isa 66:12
Names joy that is loud and visible, the kind that breaks out where others can see and hear it: a wilderness bursting into bloom, a strong runner setting off on his course, a whole city summoned to celebrate together.Isa 35:1Psa 19:5Psa 68:3Isa 66:10
Regularly puts God himself in the place of the one rejoicing, taking open pleasure in his people and even singing over them, and, more chillingly, taking that same kind of pleasure in bringing judgment on them.Zep 3:17Jer 32:41Isa 62:5Deu 30:9Deu 28:63
Can turn ugly and describe gloating over someone else's ruin: enemies cheering at the fall of a city, and a mocking summons to Edom to enjoy her moment before her own turn comes.Lam 1:21Lam 4:21
Is set off by an occasion, so the joy has a moment when it starts: a rescue, a promise kept, a new thing God is making.Psa 35:9Isa 61:10Isa 65:18
חָפֵץto want something and be pleased with it, a matter of favour and willingness that can be said of a king toward a subject; this word is warmer and more playful, at home with children.
The pleasure is playful and physical, at home with small children: a baby amusing himself at a snake's den, a child bounced on the knees.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
It can name pleasure given to someone rather than pleasure taken, the cheering of a mind crowded with anxious thoughts.Psa 94:19
The same spelling carries a second, unrelated meaning, sealing eyes shut so a person cannot see, so context alone decides whether delight is in view at all.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both are rendered "delight" and both name a worshipper's pleasure in God's instruction, standing side by side within Psalm 119.Psa 119:35Psa 119:16Psa 119:47
Both are used to state a settled preference over against something the speaker rejects, so the pleasure functions as a claim of loyalty rather than a passing mood.Psa 73:25Psa 40:8Psa 119:70
God is repeatedly the one who does or does not take pleasure, and what pleases him is presented as the measure of true worship.Isa 1:11Hos 6:6Ezk 18:23
It reaches past feeling into deciding, so it is the ordinary word for wanting to do something or being willing to do it, even in flat legal and courtly settings.Deu 25:7Rut 3:13Est 6:62Sa 15:26
Its object is often a person rather than a thing, naming the pull one person feels toward another that then moves them to act on that person's behalf.Gen 34:191Sa 19:12Sa 22:20
עָנֹגsoft, luxurious pleasure, the kind taken in rich food or in ease; this word is the pleasure of play and affection rather than of comfort.
Belongs to small children at play: a nursing baby amusing itself over a snake's den, an infant bounced on the knee.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
The regular word for taking pleasure in what God has said, turning his instruction over with enjoyment rather than duty.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70
Names the relief of being comforted, pleasure that arrives while the heart is still crowded with anxious thoughts.Psa 94:19
The same spelling also carries a bleak, unrelated use in Isaiah: eyes smeared over and sealed shut so that a person cannot see, rendered "shut" or "blind yourselves".Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both name a pleasure a person takes on purpose, something one does to oneself, which is why English keeps reaching for "delight yourself in" for either word.Psa 37:4Psa 119:47
Isaiah sets the two side by side in one picture of Jerusalem restored, first nursing with enjoyment at her comforting breast and then being dandled on her knees.Isa 66:11Isa 66:12
Describes a whole person as pampered and soft, not just a passing feeling: a woman so cushioned by luxury that she would not set her foot on the ground, or a city pictured as a lovely, coddled beauty.Deu 28:56Jer 6:2
At home with rich food and plenty, the deep satisfaction of being filled with something costly rather than spending money on what does not feed.Isa 55:2Isa 66:11
Takes God himself as the thing enjoyed, so the pleasure is directed at a person rather than at his words or his gifts.Psa 37:4Job 22:26Isa 58:14Job 27:10
Can sour into cruel amusement, enjoying oneself at someone else's expense, where Isaiah asks the mockers whom they are having such a good time over.Isa 57:4
sha'a in the other biblical languages
καμμύωGreek“to close”the Greek verb for closing the eyes, used in Matthew 13:15 and Acts 28:27 where the New Testament quotes Isaiah 6:10; it names the shutting without the image of something smeared across the eyes.
Most of the time the Hebrew word has nothing to do with eyes at all: it is the word for taking pleasure in something, above all in God's commands, and for the comfort that cheers a mind crowded with worries.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70Psa 94:19
It also covers safe, happy play and the petting of a small child: a nursing baby amusing himself over a snake's hole, and children carried on the hip and bounced on the knees.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
Because one Hebrew spelling carries both the blinding idea and the delighting idea, a reader has to decide from the sentence which is meant. Isaiah 29:9 stacks two forms of it side by side, and translators divide over whether the first is "blind yourselves" or "indulge yourselves."Isa 29:9
In the Hebrew the shutting is an order given to one party about another: the prophet is commissioned to seal a nation's eyes, so the blindness comes as a task handed to a messenger rather than as a report of what the people had already done.Isa 6:10
Both
Both name the closing of a person's eyes so that they cannot see what is right in front of them, and they meet in one sentence: when the New Testament quotes Isaiah's charge in Greek, this Greek verb is what stands in for the Hebrew one.Isa 6:10Mat 13:15
In both, the shut eye is a settled unwillingness rather than a damaged eye, and what it keeps out is rescue: each verse runs straight on to say that otherwise these people would see, understand, turn back, and be healed.Isa 6:10Act 28:27
In the Greek the people are the ones who did the shutting, and it is reported as something already done: "their eyes they closed." The charge is laid at the hearers' own door rather than given to anyone as an order.Mat 13:15Act 28:27
The Greek word does one job only. Everywhere it appears it means shutting the eyes and nothing else, so it never has to be sorted out from a second, unrelated meaning the way its Hebrew counterpart does.Mat 13:15Act 28:27
Only the Greek word turns the old charge on a new audience. It is used of the crowds who listen to Jesus teach in stories without taking anything in, and again of the hearers in Rome in the closing scene of Acts, so an ancient verdict is being applied to people centuries later.Mat 13:15Act 28:27
συνήδομαιGreek“to delight”the Greek verb Paul uses in Romans 7:22 for delighting in God's law, the nearest counterpart to what Psalm 119 says with this word, though it is a word of glad agreement rather than of play.
Reaches past gladness of mind into bodily play and affection: a small child plays happily over a snake's den in the promised peace, and a nursing child is bounced and petted on the knees.Isa 11:8Isa 66:12
Can describe delight one party gives to another rather than delight a person feels for themselves: God's comforts cheer and soothe the soul when anxious thoughts crowd in.Psa 94:19
Carries a second use with nothing to do with pleasure at all: eyes smeared or sealed over so that a people cannot see, and a self-inflicted blindness and stupor.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both are used for a person's delight in God's instruction, taken personally and held to gladly rather than merely approved from a distance; the Greek verb is the nearest New Testament match for what Psalm 119 says of God's statutes.Psa 119:16Rom 7:22
Both describe a quiet, inward pleasure rather than public celebration: neither one pictures a shout, a festival, or a crowd, but the steady enjoyment a person takes in what they love.Psa 119:70Rom 7:22
Names delight as glad agreement with a standard: Paul is not enjoying an object but siding with what God's law says is good, so the word reports approval felt as pleasure rather than pleasure taken in a thing or a person.Rom 7:22
The one place it appears sets this delight against a divided self: Paul delights in God's law in his inmost being while an opposite pull is at work in him, so the word describes a settled inward loyalty that the rest of the person is fighting.Rom 7:22
παίζωGreek“to play”the ordinary Greek verb for playing, the closest match to the child at play in Isaiah 11:8; it lacks the fondling and petting side this word also carries.
The Hebrew verb reaches past bodily play into settled inner pleasure, so the same word that fits a child at play also says what a person feels toward God's commands, which he loves and turns over in his mind.Psa 119:16Psa 119:47Psa 119:70
It can name pleasure given to someone rather than taken by them: comfort that soothes a mind crowded with anxious thoughts, or a baby petted and bounced on the knees. The Greek verb is only ever something the players themselves do.Psa 94:19Isa 66:12
The same Hebrew spelling also carries a completely separate word meaning to seal a person's eyes shut, as if something were smeared across them, which has nothing to do with play and no counterpart in the Greek verb at all.Isa 6:10Isa 29:9
Both
Both name unrestrained bodily play rather than an organized game: a small child amusing itself over a snake's den, and people on their feet dancing at a feast. Neither word is about sport or competition, and both are the ordinary word for playing in their own language.Isa 11:81Co 10:7
The one New Testament use is not innocent fun. Paul quotes the golden calf scene, where the people eat, drink and then get up to "play", meaning the dancing and reveling that went with worshipping the idol, and he holds it up as a warning against idol worship. The Hebrew verb never carries that dark edge.1Co 10:7
It describes a whole crowd letting loose together at a feast, a public scene of eating, drinking and dancing. Every use of the Hebrew verb is instead about one person: a single child, a single worshipper, a single troubled mind.1Co 10:7
What scholars say about sha'a
The standard lexicons treat the consonants שׁעע as two unrelated verbs. BDB and HALOT list שׁעע I with the sense "to be smeared over, blinded", attested in the hiphil at Isaiah 6:10 and in the qal and hithpalpel at Isaiah 29:9, and compare an Arabic cognate used of weak or blinded eyes; the same imagery stands behind טוח at Isaiah 44:18, where God has plastered over the eyes of idolaters. שׁעע II, "to sport, fondle, take delight in", appears in the pilpel (Isaiah 11:8;Psalms 94:19; 119:70), the pulpal (Isaiah 66:12) and the hithpalpel (Psalm 119:16, 47), and supplies the noun שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים, concentrated in Psalm 119 and in the portrait of Wisdom at Proverbs 8:30 to 31. DCH keeps the two entries separate, and no major lexicon derives one from the other. The doubled forms of שׁעע II belong to the vocabulary of caressing and play; Isaiah 66:12 supplies the one clearly passive instance, conventionally rendered "be dandled". At Isaiah 29:9 commentators including Wildberger and Blenkinsopp note the wordplay running through the couplet, where each pair of verbs sounds the same twice over, and read both occurrences of this root as blinding; the alternative, taking הִשְׁתַּעַשְׁעוּ from שׁעע II as an ironic "indulge yourselves", is a minority proposal rather than a settled reading. Isaiah 6:10 has generated a large literature on the hardening commission, but the lexical sense of the verb is not in doubt there.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. שׁעע I, שׁעע IIlexicon
BDB, s.v. שׁעע I, שׁעע IIlexicon
DCH, s.v. שׁעעlexicon
Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12, Continental Commentaries (Fortress, 1991)commentary
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39, Anchor Yale Bible 19 (Doubleday, 2000)commentary
Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101-150, Word Biblical Commentary 21, rev. ed. (Nelson, 2002)commentary