Isaiah 42:18
Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see!
BSB
ASV
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
KJV
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 16.13. (PSALM 33) (379)
It is evident, indeed, that some possess ears better able to hear the words of God. But to those who do not have those ears, what does he say? "Hear, you deaf, and, you blind, behold." Also, "I opened my mouth and panted," and "You have broken the teeth of sinners."4 All these things were said in reference to the faculties that render service for spiritual food and spiritual doctrine.
This call to the deaf to hear and the blind to see is like the command given to the man that had the withered hand to stretch it forth; though he could not do this, because it was withered, yet, if he had not attempted to do it, he would not have been healed, and his being healed thereupon was owing, not to his act, but to the divine power.
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.
In this they differ from "the blind" (Isa 42:16). The Jews are referred to. He had said, God would destroy the heathen idolatry; here he remembers that even Israel, His "servant" (Isa 42:19), from whom better things might have been expected, is tainted with this sin.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Isaiah 35:5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
leads to
“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a…
When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?’”
On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”
Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
Through
Proverbs 20:12Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both.
leads to
This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
He who affixed the ear, can He not hear? He who formed the eye, can He not see?
Through
Isaiah 29:18On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
leads to
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
