<p>7:6 <em>And he said to them: Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me</em>- See on Heb. 11:4. They honoured with their lips, but their heart was far from God; they kept His commandments, but they frustrated their intention by not letting them influence their essential selves (Mk. 7:6-9). They fiercely guarded the pronunciation of His Covenant Name; but in reality, they forgot that Name (Jer. 23:27).</p><p>Isaiah prophesied &quot;of you&quot; in the first century. The reference to &ldquo;this people&hellip;&rdquo; was not to be understood as only Isaiah&rsquo;s hearers, but all who read this living word. And so this is in the end how to study the Bible- to let it speak to&nbsp;<em>you in your generation</em>.</p><p>The prophecy quoted from Is. 29 is a criticism of the common people of Judah at Hezekiah&rsquo;s time; there was Godly leadership, but Isaiah laments that the ordinary people were far from Yahweh. But the Lord quotes this as relevant to the Jewish religious leadership, who prided themselves on their separation from the mass &lsquo;people of the land&rsquo; whom they considered as apostate. Yet again we see His radical turning upside down of the Jewish worldview and creation of a new order, where secular people like His disciples were to be the new Sanhedrin leadership (see on Mt. 15:2&nbsp;<em>elders</em>). Note that He was at this stage specifically addressing the Jewish elders, because only in Mt. 15:10 does He call the crowd to Him to listen.</p>