Deuteronomy 28:28-29

28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ¹  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ²  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you.

Isaiah 29:10-12

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply. ³ 

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

29:11 To you this entire prophetic revelation ⁴  is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read ⁵  and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.” 29:12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t read ⁶  and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 56:10

56:10 All their watchmen ⁸  are blind,

they are unaware. ⁹ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ¹⁰  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Isaiah 59:9-11

Israel Confesses its Sin

59:9 For this reason deliverance ¹¹  is far from us ¹² 

and salvation does not reach us.

We wait for light, ¹³  but see only darkness; ¹⁴ 

we wait for ¹⁵  a bright light, ¹⁶  but live ¹⁷  in deep darkness. ¹⁸ 

59:10 We grope along the wall like the blind,

we grope like those who cannot see; ¹⁹ 

we stumble at noontime as if it were evening.

Though others are strong, we are like dead men. ²⁰ 

59:11 We all growl like bears,

we coo mournfully like doves;

we wait for deliverance, ²¹  but there is none,

for salvation, but it is far from us.

Micah 3:6-7

3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ²² 

it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ²³ 

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ²⁴ 

3:7 The prophets ²⁵  will be ashamed;

the omen readers will be humiliated.

All of them will cover their mouths, ²⁶ 

for they will receive no divine oracles.” ²⁷ 

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ²⁸  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ²⁹  both will fall into a pit.”

Ephesians 4:18

4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ³⁰  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

[28:28]  ¹ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ² tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[29:10]  ³ tn Heb “a disposition [or “spirit”] of deep sleep.” Through this mixed metaphor (sleep is likened to a liquid which one pours and in turn symbolizes spiritual dullness) the prophet emphasizes that God himself has given the people over to their spiritual insensitivity as a form of judgment.

[29:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “vision” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[29:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “one who knows a/the scroll.”

[29:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “and if the scroll is handed to one who does not know a scroll.”

[29:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “I do not know a scroll.”

[56:10]  ⁸ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[59:9]  ¹¹ tn מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat), which refers to “justice” in the earlier verses, here refers to “justice from God,” or “vindication.” Because the people are unjust, God refuses to vindicate them before their enemies. See v. 11.

[59:9]  ¹² sn The prophet speaks on behalf of the sinful nation and confesses its sins.

[59:9]  ¹³ sn Light here symbolizes prosperity and blessing.

[59:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “but, look, darkness”; NIV “but all is darkness.”

[59:9]  ¹⁵ tn The words “we wait for” are supplied in the translation; the verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[59:9]  ¹⁶ tn The plural noun form may indicate degree here.

[59:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “walk about”; NCV “all we have is darkness.”

[59:9]  ¹⁸ tn The plural noun form may indicate degree here.

[59:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like there are no eyes.”

[59:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb among the strong, like dead men.”

[59:11]  ²¹ tn See the note at v. 9.

[3:6]  ²² tn Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.”

[3:6]  ²³ tn Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.”

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”

[3:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “seers.”

[3:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”

[3:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for there will be no answer from God.”

[15:14]  ²⁸ tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:14]  ²⁹ tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”

[4:18]  ³⁰ tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.