Isaiah 42:19
Read Isaiah 42:19 Using Other Translations
What does Isaiah 42:19 mean?
Who is blind, but my servant?
&c.] Kimchi, taking the former words to be spoken to the
Jews, thinks this is their reply; who will say in answer to it,
why do ye call us blind and deaf? who so blind and deaf as Isaiah
the prophet, the servant of the Lord, his messenger, and a
perfect one as he is called? but as the preceding words are
spoken to the Gentiles, here the Lord does as it were correct
himself, as if he should say, why do I call the Gentiles blind
and deaf, when the people of the Jews, who call themselves my
servants, and pretend to serve and worship me, yet there are none
so blind as they in spiritual things? though they have so many
opportunities and advantages of light and knowledge, yet shut
their eyes wilfully against the light; hence the people and their
guides, the Scribes and Pharisees, are often called "blind" by
our Lord, to whose times this passage refers, ( Matthew
15:14 ) ( Matthew
23:16-19 Matthew
23:24 ) ; "or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?" not the
Prophet Isaiah, but some other, who did not attend to what he was
charged with, and did not perform his office aright; it may
design in general the priests and Levites, who were the
messengers of the Lord of hosts to instruct the people; and yet
these were deaf to the messages that God gave them, and they were
to deliver to the people: or it may be rendered, "or deaf, but,
or as, to whom I send my messenger" F26; or messengers, as the
Vulgate Latin version; and so the Targum,
``and sinners to whom I send my prophets;''and so it may respect the body of the people as before, who were deaf to John the Baptist, the messenger sent before the Lord; to Christ himself, and his ministry, and to his apostles, who were first sent to them: who is blind, as he that is perfect?
who pretended to be so, as the young man who thought he had kept all the commandments, and as Saul before conversion, and all the Pharisees, those self-righteous persons who needed no repentance, and yet who so blind as they? and indeed, had they not been blind to themselves, they could never have thought themselves perfect; and yet when they were told they were so, could not bear it, ( Matthew 19:20 ) ( Philippians 3:6 ) ( Luke 15:7 ) ( John 9:41 ) : and blind, as the Lord's servant? which is repeated for the further confirmation of it, and more clearly to show whose servant is meant.
F26 (xlva ykalmk vrxw) "et surdus, sicut (sub. [ad quem], vel [ad quos]) angelum sive nucium meum missurus sum", Forerius, ex V. L. and to this sense, Grotius.
