Isaiah 29:9

9 Be astonished and be amazed! Blind yourselves and be blinded! They are drunk but not [from] wine; they stagger but not [from] strong drink.

Isaiah 29:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:9

Stay yourselves, and wonder
Stop a while, pause a little, consider within yourselves the case and circumstances of these people, and wonder at their stupidity. Kimchi thinks these words were spoken in the times of Ahaz, with respect to the men of Judah; and so Aben Ezra says, they are directed to the men of Zion; and it is generally thought that they are spoken to the more religious and sober part of them; though, by the following verse ( Isaiah 29:10 ) , it appears that the case was general, and that the people to whom this address is made were as stupid as others: cry ye out, and cry;
or, "delight yourselves" F19, as in the margin; take your pleasure, indulge yourselves in carnal mirth, gratify your sensual appetite in rioting and wantonness, and then "cry" and lament, as you will have reason to do. Kimchi says, his father rendered the words, "awake yourselves, and awake others"; that is, from that deep sleep they were fallen into, afterwards mentioned: they are drunken, but not with wine;
not with that only, for otherwise many of them were given to drunkenness in a literal sense, ( Isaiah 28:7 ) but they were like drunken men, as stupid, senseless, and secure, though in the utmost danger: they stagger, but not with strong drink;
unsteady in their counsels and resolutions, in their principles and practices, and stumble in their goings.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 (wevetvh) "oblectate vos", Cocceius; "delicias agunt", Junius & Tremellius; "deliciantur", Piscator.

Isaiah 29:9 In-Context

7 And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, all those who fight [against] her and her stronghold, and those who inflict her shall be like [a] dream, a vision of [the] night.
8 And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams--look, [he is] eating! And he wakes up and his inner self [is] empty. Or as when the thirsty person dreams--look, [he is] drinking! And he wakes up and look, [he is] faint, and his inner self [is] longing for water. So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be astonished and be amazed! Blind yourselves and be blinded! They are drunk but not [from] wine; they stagger but not [from] strong drink.
10 For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and he has shut your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers.
11 And the vision of all this has become for you like [the] words of [a] sealed document. When they give it to one who knows the document, saying, "{Read} this now!" He says, "I am not able, for it [is] sealed."

Footnotes 2

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.