Blindness

How Nave’s arranged it

• Disqualified for priestly officeLeviticus 21:18
• Of animals, disqualified for a sacrificeLeviticus 22:22Deuteronomy 15:21Malachi 1:8
• Miraculously inflicted upon the SodomitesGenesis 19:11
• Syrians2 Kings 6:18–23
• Saul of TarsusActs 9:8Acts 9:9
• ElymasActs 13:11
• Sent as a judgmentDeuteronomy 28:28
• Miraculous healing ofMatthew 9:27–30Matthew 11:5Matthew 12:22Matthew 21:14
• The miraculous healing of BartimaeusMatthew 20:30–34Mark 10:46–52
• The miraculous healing of a man of BethsaidaMark 8:22–25
• The miraculous healing of a man born blindJohn 9:1–7
• INSTANCES OF

The passages, in Bible order (207)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 19:11

   And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 19:112 voices

   “And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great,.... with "blindnesses" (n); with extreme blindness, with blindness both of eye and heart, as Aben Ezra interprets it; and indeed had they not been given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, such a stroke upon them might have convinced them that their ways were evil, and their works not right, and that by them they had incurred the displeasure of God, and would desisted from their enterprise; but, on the contrary, they went on with it, and sought with all diligence and labour as much as possible to effect it.

   “And they smote the men - with blindness - This has been understood two ways: 1. The angels, by the power which God had given them, deprived these wicked men of a proper and regular use of their sight, so as either totally to deprive them of it, or render it so confused that they could no longer distinguish objects; or, 2. They caused such a deep darkness to take place, that they could not find Lot’s door.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 19:11→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 27:1

   When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Esau replied.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 27:12 voices

   “Here is Isaac's design to declare Esau his heir. The promise of the Messiah and the land of Canaan was a great trust first committed to Abraham, inclusive and typical of spiritual and eternal blessings; this by divine direction he transmitted to Isaac.

   “- Isaac Blessing His Sons The life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy-five years he is contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years more his son Jacob remains under the paternal roof. The remaining forty-four years are passed in the retirement of old age. The chapter before us narrates the last solemn acts of the middle period of his life. Gen 27:1-4 Isaac was old. - Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 27:1→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Genesis 48:10

   Now Israel’s eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Exodus 5:2

   But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 5:21 voice

   “Who is the Lord - Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice? What claims has he on me? I am under no obligation to him. Pharaoh spoke here under the common persuasion that every place and people had a tutelary deity, and he supposed that this Jehovah might be the tutelary deity of the Israelites, to whom he, as an Egyptian, could be under no kind of obligation. It is not judicious to bring this question as a proof that Pharaoh was an atheist: of this the text affords no evidence.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 5:2→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Leviticus 21:18

   No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed;

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 21:182 voices

   “A flat nose - Most restrain this word to the nose, and to some great deformity relating to it. But according to others, it signifies more generally, a person that wants some member or members, because the next word, to which it is opposed, signifies one that hath more members than he should.

   “A blind man - That is, in one eye; for he that was utterly blind could not possibly be employed in such a service. A flat nose, like that of an ape; so the best versions. Any thing superfluous, such as six fingers, six toes, etc.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 21:18→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Leviticus 22:22

   You are not to present to the LORD any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, or anything with a running sore, a festering rash, or a scab; you must not put any of these on the altar as an offering made by fire to the LORD.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 22:221 voice

   “Blind, or broken, or maimed,.... Which is "blind" of one eye, or both: and so the Egyptians, as they would not sacrifice any of their oxen that had any blemishes on them, and were of a different colour, or changed in their form, so likewise such that were deprived of either of their eyes (x).

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 22:22→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Numbers 16:1

   Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath son of Levi, along with some Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—conducted

   ›Commentary on Numbers 16:11 voice

   “Amram and Izhar were brothers (compare Exo 6:18), and thus Korah, the “son,” i. e. descendant of Izhar, was connected by distant cousinship with Moses and Aaron. Though being a Kohathite, he was of that division of the Levites which had the most honorable charge, yet as Elizaphan, who had been made “chief of the families of the Kohathites” Num 3:30, belonged to the youngest branch descended from Uzziel Num 3:27, Korah probably regarded himself as injured; and therefore took the lead in this rebellion. Of the others, On is not again mentioned. He probably withdrew from the conspiracy.

   Everything gathered on Numbers 16:1→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Numbers 17:1

   And the LORD said to Moses,

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Deuteronomy 15:21

   But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Deuteronomy 28:28

    The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:281 voice

    “The Lord shall smite thee with madness - שגעון shiggaon, distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do. And blindness - עורון ivvaron, blindness, both physical and mental; the גרב garab, (Deu 28:27), destroying their eyes, and the judgments of God confounding their understandings. Astonishment - תמהון timmahon, stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities, and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 28:28→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Deuteronomy 29:4

    Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 29:41 voice

    “The Lord hath not given you a heart, etc. - Some critics read this verse interrogatively: And hath not God given you a heart, etc.? because they suppose that God could not reprehend them for the non-performance of a duty, when he had neither given them a mind to perceive the obligation of it, nor strength to perform it, had that obligation been known.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 29:4→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Deuteronomy 32:28

    Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Deuteronomy 32:29

    If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 32:291 voice

    “That they would consider their latter end! - אחריתם archaritham, properly, their latter times - the glorious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the promised Savior, they would consequently act as persons under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then: -

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 32:29→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Judges 16:20

    Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

    ›Commentary on Judges 16:202 voices

    “But the one who has taken root as "a fruitful olive tree in the house of God" composes those words against the tyrant which we have heard in the psalm, saying, "Why do you glory in evil, you who are mighty in iniquity," whose "tongue" is "like a sharp razor." It was by means of these two things that [Samson] was led off, after [Delilah] had removed the beauty of his hair and cut off the "seven locks of curls" in which our strength lies.

    “The possession of his extraordinary strength is ascribed (e. g. Jdg 13:25) to the presence of the Spirit of the Lord. Now the Lord, or the Spirit of the Lord, had departed from him, and so his strength had gone too. The practical lesson against the presumption of self-dependence, and the all-importance of a hearty dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit, must not be overlooked.

    Everything gathered on Judges 16:20→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. 1 Samuel 4:15

    Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his gaze was fixed because he could not see.

    ›Commentary on 1 Samuel 4:151 voice

    “Dim - Rather, “set.” The word is quite different from that so rendered in 1Sa 3:2. The phrase seems to express the “fixed” state of the blind eye, which is not affected by the light. Eli’s blindness, while it made him alive to sounds, prevented his seeing the ripped garments and dust-besprinkled head of the messenger of bad news.

    Everything gathered on 1 Samuel 4:15→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. 1 Kings 14:4

    Jeroboam’s wife did as instructed; she arose and went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.

    Verse page →Original language →