Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

“Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind, so that you may see.

Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like My messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My dedicated one, or blind like the servant of the Lord?

Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes, and are deaf, yet have ears.

Israel’s watchmen are blind, all of them, they know nothing; all of them are mute dogs, they cannot bark; they dream, lie down, and love to sleep.

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.

Watch! I am going to bring them from the northern land. I will gather them from remote regions of the earth— the blind and the lame will be with them, along with those who are pregnant and those about to give birth. They will return here as a great assembly!

Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

נ Nun

Blind, they stumbled in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

I will bring distress on mankind, and they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither away and his right eye go completely blind!”

On that day”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah but strike all the horses of the nations with blindness.

“When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts.