John 9:6

9:6 Having said this, ¹  he spat on the ground and made some mud ²  with the saliva. He ³  smeared the mud on the blind man’s ⁴  eyes

John 9:32

9:32 Never before ⁵  has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see. ⁶ 

Exodus 4:11

4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave ⁷  a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ⁸ 

Exodus 8:19

8:19 The magicians said ⁹  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ¹⁰  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ¹¹  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Psalms 94:9

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ¹² 

Psalms 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ¹³ 

The Lord loves the godly.

Proverbs 20:12

20:12 The ear that hears and the eye that sees ¹⁴  –

the Lord has made them both. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 35:5-6

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

the mute tongue will shout for joy;

for water will flow ¹⁶  in the desert,

streams in the wilderness. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ¹⁸  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

[9:6]  ¹ tn Grk “said these things.”

[9:6]  ² tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency). The textual variant preserved in the Syriac text of Ephraem’s commentary on the Diatessaron (“he made eyes from his clay”) probably arose from the interpretation given by Irenaeus in Against Heresies: “that which the Artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, he then supplied in public.” This involves taking the clay as an allusion to Gen 2:7, which is very unlikely.

[9:6]  ³ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) was replaced by a third person pronoun and a new sentence started here in the translation.

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “on his.”

[9:32]  ⁵ tn Or “Never from the beginning of time,” Grk “From eternity.”

[9:32]  ⁶ tn Grk “someone opening the eyes of a man born blind” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[4:11]  ⁷ tn The verb שִׂים (sim) means “to place, put, set”; the sentence here more precisely says, “Who put a mouth into a man?”

[4:11]  ⁸ sn The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5-7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the Lord replies with reminders about himself and promises, “I will be with your mouth,” an assertion that repeats the verb he used four times in 3:12 and 14 and in promises to Isaac and Jacob (Gen 26:3; 31:3).

[8:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the magicians said.”

[8:19]  ¹⁰ tn The word “finger” is a bold anthropomorphism (a figure of speech in which God is described using human characteristics).

[8:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh became hard.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[94:9]  ¹² tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[146:8]  ¹³ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[20:12]  ¹⁴ sn The first half of the verse refers to two basic senses that the Lord has given to people. C. H. Toy, however, thinks that they represent all the faculties (Proverbs [ICC], 388). But in the book of Proverbs seeing and hearing come to the fore. By usage “hearing” also means obeying (15:31; 25:12), and “seeing” also means perceiving and understanding (Isa 6:9-10).

[20:12]  ¹⁵ sn The verse not only credits God with making these faculties of hearing and sight and giving them to people, but it also emphasizes their spiritual use in God’s service.

[35:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “burst forth” (so NAB); KJV “break out.”

[35:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT “desert.”

[11:5]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.