Isaiah 42:18

Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. HEAR, YE DEAF - namely, to the voice of God. LOOK, YE BLIND - to your duty and interest; willfully so (.) In this they differ from "the blind" (). The Jews are referred to. He had said, God would destroy the pagan idolatry. Here He remembers that even Israel, His "servant" (), from whom better things might have been expected, is tainted with this sin....

18._O ye deaf, hear, and ye blind. _He now employs these words, “blind” and “deaf,” in a sense different from that in which he formerly employed them, (verse 16,) when he metaphorically described those who had no understanding, and who were overwhelmed by such a mass of afflictions that they were blinded by their sorrow; for here he gives the name of _blind _to those who shut their eyes in the midst of light, and do not behold the works of God; and the name of _deaf to _those who refuse to hear him, and sink down into stupidity and slothfulness amidst the dregs of their ignorance. He therefore condemns the Jews for “blindness,” or rather, in my own opinion, he condemns all men; for, while he directly reproaches the Jews because “in hearing they do not hear, and in seeing they do not see,” (Isaiah 6:9; Matthew 13:13

18-25 Observe the call given to this people, and the character given of them. Multitudes are ruined for want of observing that which they cannot but see; they perish, not through ignorance, but carelessness. The Lord is well-pleased in the making known his own righteousness. For their sins they were spoiled of all their possessions. This fully came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation. There is no resisting, nor escaping God's anger. See the mischief sin makes; it provokes God to anger. And those not humbled by lesser judgments, must expect greater. Alas! how many professed Christians are blind as the benighted heathen! While the Lord is well-pleased in saving sinners through the righteousness of Christ he will also glorify his justice, by punishing all proud despisers. Seeing God has poured out his wrath on his once-favoured people, because of their sins, let us fear, lest a...

HEAR, YE DEAF - This is evidently an address to the Jews, and probably to the Jews of the time of the prophet. He had been predicting the coming of the Messiah, and the influence of his religion on the Gentile world. He had said that God would go forth to destroy the idolatry of the pagan nations, and to convince them of the folly of the worship of images, and to confound them for putting their trust in them. He seems here to have recollected that this was the easily-besetting sin of his own countrymen, and perhaps especially of the times when he penned this portion of the prophecy - under the reign of Manasseh; that that generation was stupid, blind, deaf to the calls of God, and sunk in the deepest debasement of idolatry. In view of this, and of the great truths which he had uttered, he calls on them to hear, to be alarmed, to return to God, and assures them that for these sins they ex...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 42:1 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, AND THE WORK WHICH HE WILL PERFORM. There are comparatively few who deny that, in this place at any rate, the "Servant of the Lord" is the Messiah. (So the Targum on the passage; so Abar-barnel; so, among moderns, Oehler, Delitzsch, and Mr. Cheyne.) The portraiture has "so strong an individuality and such marked personal features, that it cannot possibly be a mere personified collective;" and it goes so "infinitely _beyond _anything of which a man was ever capable that it can only be the future Christ" (Delitzsch). It may be added that St. Matthew ...

HEAR, YE DEAF; AND LOOK, YE BLIND, THAT YE MAY SEE. Jarchi and Kimchi think these words are spoken to Israel, who, as Aben Ezra says, were deaf and blind in heart; but they are rather an exhortation to the Gentiles that remained impenitent and unbelieving, and who were deaf to the voice of the Gospel, and blind as to the knowledge of it; and the purport of the exhortation is, that they would make use of their external hearing and sight, which they had, that they might attain to a spiritual hearing and understanding of divine things; "for faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God", Romans 10:17 to hear the Gospel preached, and to look into the Scriptures, and read the word of God, are the means of attaining light and knowledge in spiritual things; and these are within the compass of natural men, who are internally deaf and blind....

CHAPTER 42 The True Servant of Jehovah 1. _The Servant of Jehovah and His mission (Isaiah 42:1)_ 2. _His future work among the nations (Isaiah 42:5)_ 3. _The future song of redemption glory (Isaiah 42:10)_ 4. _Jehovah's manifestation in power (Isaiah 42:14)_ 5. _The address of exhortation to the deaf and blind nation (Isaiah 42:18) _ Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 12:20) tells us that this servant is the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark t

ISRAEL'S PITEOUS PLIGHT, A PUNISHMENT FROM YAHWEH. The prophet bids the people, who have not recognised Yahweh's working in their distresses, look beneath the surface. To all appearance they are captives whom none can deliver. Will none of them see that Yahweh Himself is the author of their misfortune? He has chastised them, though they have not understood the discipline. ISAIAH 42:19. A gloss, identifying the blind and deaf of Isaiah 42:18; a second gloss (Isaiah 42:19_ b_) has been added. Both take Yahweh's Servant to be Israel. AT PEACE WITH ME: difficult; perhaps read, my devoted one. Isaiah 42:21

HEAR. Note the call to hear in the Structure, corresponding with the call in Isaiah 42:23....

_look_and _see_ ARE distinguished as in 2 Kings 3:14; Job 35:5, &c.; the former is to direct the gaze towards, the latter to take in the significance of an object....