an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct
blind
עִוְרִ֑ים'iv.Rim
H5787
blind (literally or figuratively) · adjective, masculine plural absolute
opened
תִּפָּקַ֖חְנָהti.pa.Kach.nah
H6491
to open (the senses · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
ears
וְאָזְנֵ֥יve.'a.ze.Nei
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct
deaf
חֵרְשִׁ֖יםche.re.Shim
H2795
deaf (whether literally or spiritual) · adjective, masculine plural absolute
unstopped
תִּפָּתַֽחְנָהti.pa.Tach.nah
H6605
to open wide (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 42:6-7 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for…
Luke 7:20-23 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for anothe…
Isaiah 29:18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
Matthew 11:3-5 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Isaiah 32:3-4 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
Psalms 146:8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
John 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth mor…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 35:5–end
"Then, when your God shall come, even Christ, to set up his kingdom in the world, to which all the prophets bore witness, especially towards the conclusion of their prophecies of the temporal deliverances of the church, and this evangelical prophet especially - then look for great things."
I. Wonders shall be wrought in the kingdoms both of nature and grace, wonders of mercy wrought upon the children of men, sufficient to evince that it is no less than a God that comes to us. 1. Wonders shall be wrought on men's bodies (Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6): The eyes of the blind shall be opened; this was often done by our Lord Jesus when he was here upon earth, with a word's speaking, and one he gave sight t…
Language figuratively, descriptive of the joy felt at the deliverance from Assyria and Babylon; literally, true of the antitypical times of Messiah and His miracles (see Margin references, Mat 11:5; Luk 7:2; Jo2 1:5, Jo2 1:8; Act 3:2).
John Gill on Isaiah 35:5
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,.... Which was literally fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, Matthew 9:27, John 9:1 and spiritually, both among Jews and Gentiles; especially the latter, under the ministry of the apostles, when those who were blind as to spiritual things had no knowledge of God in Christ; nor of the way of salvation by him; nor of the plague of their own hearts; nor of the work of the Spirit of God upon the soul; nor of the truths of the Gospel; through the power of divine grace had the eyes of their understanding opened, so as to see their sinfulness and vileness; their emptiness of all that is good, and their impotency to do anything that is spiritual; their…
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened. [26] He continues the promise about the restoration of the Church, in order to encourage the hearts of the godly, who must have been grievously dismayed by the frightful calamities which he foretold. Since a true restoration is accomplished by Christ, we must therefore come to him, if we wish to know the meaning of the words which Isaiah employs in this passage; and indeed it is only by his kindness that we rise again to the hope of a heavenly life. Isaiah probably alludes to a former prediction, (Isaiah 29:10,) in which he threatened against the Jews dreadful blindness, madness, and total stupefaction of the soul. He now promises that, when Christ…
The Church Fathers
"God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," and the Creator himself was wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its Creator. And after the divinely miraculous works had been performed, the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted, "then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly."
And Isaiah went on to tell of other marvels and showed how Christ cured the lame, how he made the blind to see, and the mute to speak: "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, then will the ears of the deaf hear." And thereafter he spoke of the other marvels: "Then will the lame man leap like a stag, and the tongue of those with impediments of speech will be clear and distinct." And this did not happen until his coming.
Isaiah also alludes to him: "There shall go forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up from his root." The same also when he says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." He refers to him when he enumerates the healings that were to proceed from him, saying, "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall be eloquent." Him also, when he sets forth the virtue of patience, saying, "His voice shall not be heard in the streets; a bruised reed shall he not destroy, and the smoking flax shall he not quench."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Deafness · .Of moral insensibility — .Of moral insensibility
Ear, The · Christ opens — Christ opens
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Miraculous Gifts Of The Holy Spirit · Foretold — Foretold
Prophecies Respecting Christ · His working miracles — His working miracles
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
"Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame man leap as the stag, and the tongue of the dumb man shout; for waters break out in the desert, and brooks in the steppe. And the mirage becomes a fish-pond, and the thirsty ground gushing water-springs; in the place of jackals, where it lies, there springs up grass with reeds and rushes." The bodily defects mentioned here there is no reason for regarding as figurative representations of spiritual defects. The healing of bodily defects, however, is merely the outer side of what is actually effected by the coming of Jehovah (for the other side, comp. Isa 32:3-4). And so, also, the change of the…
eyes . . . ears: There will be a transformation from spiritual blindness and deafness to understanding and knowing God (6:10; 29:18; 32:3; 42:7; see also Luke 7:22; Acts 26:18).
Rashi on Isaiah 35:5
the eyes of the blind shall be opened Those who were blind, not to recognize (lit., from recognizing) their fear (sic) ([Warsaw:] this fear;) ([mss.] My fear) upon them.
and the ears of the deaf Who did not hearken to the voice of the prophets until now, will be opened and unstopped, for I will give them a proper spirit to fear Me. He says this concerning Israel, whom he called blind and deaf, as the matter is stated (infra 42:18) “You deaf ones, hearken, etc.”
