Isaiah 43:8
in Isaiah 43Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, and who have ears but are deaf.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
KJV
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 43
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Solemn challenge given by God to the nations to argue with Him the question of His superiority to their idols, and His power to deliver Israel (Isa 41:1). blind people--the Gentiles, who also, like Israel (Isa 42:19), are blind (spiritually), though having eyes; that is, natural faculties, whereby they might know God (Ro 1:20, 21) [LOWTH].
This site's exposition
a people who have eyes but are blind
on Isaiah 43:8-9
The trial scene opens with Israel summoned as a witness, Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind. That blindness was first named in Isaiah's commission at 6:10, and verse 9 gathers the nations into a courtroom. They may present their witnesses, and the test is prediction itself.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verses 8-9) Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among you will declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, 'It is true.' LXX: Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears. All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things?
If they seemed to have the eyes of the soul and a human mind, they were still nonetheless blind to the deceit of idolatry. But what then happened to them provides the basis for Isaiah's message. For the former blind and deaf were gathered together into the church of God even as the rulers of the nations opposed the people of God. The prophet is amazed and tries to make sense of the prophecy that he is speaking, and so he calls out, saying, "Who can announce these things?"
The Medieval Church1 voice
Third, he promulgates the command of liberation: bring, O Cyrus, forth, out of the land of their captivity, the people, namely, of the Jews: hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not (Jer 5:21).
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Their gods have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, and those that make them and trust in them are like unto them; so David had said ( Ps. cxv. 8 ), to which the prophet seems here to refer when he calls idolaters blind people that have eyes, and deaf people that have ears.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes “Bring forth the people, blind, although they have eyes” - I understand this of the Gentiles, as the verse following, not of the Jews. Their natural faculties, if they had made a proper use of them, must have led them to the knowledge of the being and attributes of the one true God; “for his eternal power and Godhead,” if well attended to, are clearly seen in his works, (Rom 1:20), and would have preserved them from running into the folly and absurdity of worshipping idols.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Bring forth the blind people - Many have understood this of the Jews. So Vitringa, Rosenmuller, Grotius, and others understand it. But Lowth, more correctly, regards it as referring to the Gentiles. It is designed as an argument to show the superiority of God over all idols, and to demonstrate that he was able to deliver his people from captivity and exile. He appeals, therefore Isa 43:9, to his own people in proof of his divinity and power. None of the pagan Isa 43:8 had been able to predict future events, none of the pagan gods, therefore, could save; but Yahweh, who had so often foretold events that were fulfilled, was able to deliver, and of that fact his own people had had abundant evidence. That have eyes - They had natural faculties to see and know God (compare Rom 1:20), but they had not improved them, and they had, therefore, run into the sin and folly of idolatry. The phrase ‘bring forth,’ implies a solemn appeal made by God to them to enter into an argument on the subject (compare the note at Isa 41:1).
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הוֹצִ֥יא | hotzi' | bring out | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| עַם־ | ʾam- | a people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| עִוֵּ֖ר | ʾiver | blind | H5787 → | 26 times |
| וְעֵינַ֣יִם | veeinayim | and [are] eyes | H5869 → | 887 times |
| יֵ֑שׁ | yesh | there | H3426 → | |
| וְחֵרְשִׁ֖ים | vechereshim | and deaf [people] | H2795 → | 9 times |
| וְאָזְנַ֥יִם | veazenayim | and ears | H241 → | 187 times |
| לָֽמוֹ׃ | lamo | [belong] to them |
הוֹצִ֥יאbring out
hotzi'H3318 →1067 times
עַם־a people
ʾam-H5971 →1873 times
עִוֵּ֖רblind
ʾiverH5787 →26 times
וְעֵינַ֣יִםand [are] eyes
veeinayimH5869 →887 times
יֵ֑שׁthere
yeshH3426 →
וְחֵרְשִׁ֖יםand deaf [people]
vechereshimH2795 →9 times
וְאָזְנַ֥יִםand ears
veazenayimH241 →187 times
לָֽמוֹ׃[belong] to them
lamo
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 6:9And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
it leads to
- Mark 4:12
so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 13:14–15
In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
- Luke 8:10
He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing,…
- John 12:40
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
- Acts 28:26–27
‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- Mark 4:12
Through
Ezekiel 12:2“Son of man, you are living in a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
- John 9:39–41
Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
- Psalms 78:40
How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
- Jeremiah 5:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies9
On this verse
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Eusebius of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:24; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.