Isaiah 59:10

10 Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

Isaiah 59:10 in Other Translations

10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

10 We grope like the blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime, we stumble as though it were dark. Among the living, we are like the dead.

10 Like the blind, we inch along a wall, groping eyeless in the dark. We shuffle our way in broad daylight, like the dead, but somehow walking.

10 We grope along a wall like the blind; we grope like those without eyes. We stumble at noon as though it were twilight; [we are] like the dead among those who are healthy.

Isaiah 59:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 59:10

We grope for the wall like the blind
Who either with their hands, or with a staff in them, feel for the wall to lean against, or to guide them in the way, or into the house, that they may know whereabout they are, and how they should steer their course: and we grope as if we had no eyes:
which yet they had, the eyes of their reason and understanding; but which either were not opened, or they made no use of them in searching the Scriptures, to come at the light and knowledge of divine things; and therefore only at most groped after them by the dim light of nature, if thereby they might find them. This is to be understood not of them all, but of many, and of the greatest part: we stumble at noonday as in the night;
as many persons do now: for though it is noonday in some respects, and in some places, where the Gospel and the truths of it are clearly preached; yet men stumble and fall into the greatest errors, as in the night of the greatest darkness; as if it was either the night of Paganism or Popery with them: we are in desolate places as dead men;
or "in fatnesses" ^F1; in fat places where the word and ordinances are administered, where is plenty of the means of grace, yet not quickened thereby; are as dead men, dead in trespasses and sin, and at most have only a name to live, but are dead. Some render it, "in the graves" ^F2; and the Targum thus,

``it is shut before us, as the graves are shut before the dead;''

we have no more light, joy, and comfort, than those in the graves have.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Mynmvab) "in rebus pinguissimis", Junius & Tremellius; "in pinguetudinibus", Piscator; "in opimis rebus", Vitringa.
F2 "In sepulchris", Pagninus; and so Ben Melech interprets it.

Isaiah 59:10 In-Context

8 The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace.

9 So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

10 Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

11 We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.

12 For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities:

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 28:29; S Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 56:10; Lamentations 4:14; Zephaniah 1:17
• 2. S Job 3:23; S Isaiah 8:15; John 11:9-10
• 3. Lamentations 3:6