Isaiah 59:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 59:10
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
to feel about · verb, piel infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
wall
קִ֔ירKir
H7023
a wall (as built in a trench) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
blind
כַֽעִוְרִים֙kha.'iv.Rim
H5787
blind (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine plural absolute
grope
נְגַשֵּׁ֑שָׁהne.ga.She.shah
H1659
to feel about · verb, piel infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
eyes
עֵינַ֖יִם'ei.Na.yim
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual absolute
stumble
כָּשַׁ֤לְנוּka.Shal.nu
H3782
to totter or waver (through weakness of the legs · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
noonday
בַֽצָּהֳרַ֙יִם֙va.tzo.ho.Ra.yim
H6672
a light (i.e. window) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine dual absolute
night
כַּנֶּ֔שֶׁףka.Ne.shef
H5399
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
desolate
בָּאַשְׁמַנִּ֖יםba.'ash.ma.Nim
H820
a fat-field · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
dead
כַּמֵּתִֽיםka.me.Tim
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
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
Deuteronomy 28:29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed…
Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
Lamentations 3:6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Isaiah 8:15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for ligh…
Lamentations 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
Amos 8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 59:9-15
The scope of this paragraph is the same with that of the last, to show that sin is the great mischief-maker; as it is that which keeps good things from us, so it is that which brings evil things upon us. But as there it is spoken by the prophet, in God's name, to the people, for their conviction and humiliation, and that God might be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges, so here it seems to be spoken by the people to God, as an acknowledgment of that which was there told them and an expression of their humble submission and subscription to the justice and equity of God's proceedings against them. Their uncircumcised hearts here seem to be humbled in some measure, and they are br…
grope--fulfilling Moses' threat (Deu 28:29).
stumble at noon . . . as . . . night--There is no relaxation of our evils; at the time when we might look for the noon of relief, there is still the night of our calamity.
in desolate places--rather, to suit the parallel words "at noonday," in fertile (literally, "fat"; Gen 27:28) fields [GESENIUS] (where all is promising) we are like the dead (who have no hope left them); or, where others are prosperous, we wander about as dead men; true of all unbelievers (Isa 26:10; Luk 15:17).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 59:10
We stumble at noon day as in the night "We stumble at mid-day, as in the twilight" - I adopt here an emendation of Houbigant, נשגגה nishgegah, instead of the second, נגששה negasheshah, the repetition of which has a poverty and inelegance extremely unworthy of the prophet, and unlike his manner. The mistake is of long standing, being prior to all the ancient versions. It was a very easy and obvious mistake, and I have little doubt of our having recovered the true reading in this ingenious correction.
John Gill on 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 stumbl…
The Church Fathers
This is to be understood that just as there are eyes where there is no light or there is light but not eyes to see it with, they are unable to see the matter at hand; so it is necessary that the one who wants to understand the sense must not miss what is offered as wisdom from the holy Scriptures.There will be on that day so much groaning and howling, just as a bear when it is robbed of her cubs, or even as with doves who by nature constantly moan.
At times even we, when we were in error, mired in the pride of our mind as if our feet were stuck in the mud, did not perceive our error of the divine gospel each day. We would "grope around in the dark like blind people," because our inner mind did not possess that which is necessary for discernment. Then, as if from a deep sleep, the mercy of the Most High poured out like pure rain, was sprinkled on our drowsiness, and from our sleep we were roused and boldly took up this mirror to see our self in it. At that very moment we were convicted by our faults, and we discovered that we were barren of any good virtue and that we had become a dwelling place for every corrupting thought and a lodge and abode for every lust.
We have groped like the blind against a wall: and we have touched as if without eyes: we have stumbled at noonday, as if in darkness: we are in dusky places as dead. LXX: They shall grope in the dark and feel their way like blind men; they shall stumble at noonday as in the twilight; they shall be like those who die in the midst of their groaning. Thus they handle the holy Scriptures, like blind people feeling the wall, seeking only words and leaves, not understanding the meaning and fruit that is held within the letters. Finally, the author joins and says: We stumble, or we fall at midday, as if in darkness: in the shadows, as if dead. For in the whole world, with the sun of righteousness shining brightly, they dwell in darkness, namely because they are dead in sin.
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
Backsliding · Guilt and consequences of — Guilt and consequences of
Conscience · GUILTY — GUILTY
Darkness · Effects of: Causes us to stumble — Effects of: Causes us to stumble
Dead, The · Illustrative of: A state of deep affliction, &c — Illustrative of: A state of deep affliction, &c
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).
We grope for the wall like the blind. He explains the same thing by different forms of expression; for, in consequence of the grievous complaints which were heard among the people, he determined to omit nothing that was fitted to describe their calamities. It is perhaps by way of concession [139] that he mentions those things; as if he had said, "Our affairs are reduced to the deepest misery, but we ought chiefly to consider the cause, for we have deserved all this and far worse." But it is not a probable interpretation, that stupid persons are aroused to think of their evil actions; for, although they are abundantly disposed to complain, yet the devil stupifies them, so that the tokens of G…
In the second strophe the prophet includes himself when speaking of the people. They now mourn over that state of exhaustion into which they have been brought through the perpetual straining and disappointment of expectation, and confess those sins on account of which the righteousness and salvation of Jehovah have been withheld. The prophet is speaking communicatively here; for even the better portion of the nation was involved in the guilt and consequences of the corruption which prevailed among the exiles, inasmuch as a nation forms an organized whole, and the delay of redemption really affected them. "Therefore right remains far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope fo…
in dark places Heb. בָּאַשְׁמַנִּים. Menahem (Machbereth, p. 35) interpreted it as an expression of dark places, and most exegetes concur with him. Dunash, however, (Tesuhvoth Dunash, p. 93) interprets it as an expression of fat (שׁוּמָן), with the ‘alef’ prefixed to it like the ‘alef’ that is in (Job 13:17) אַחְוָתִי, “my narrative,” [derived from חוה]; and that is in (Jer. 15:18) אַכְזָב, “a failure,” (derived from כזב ; and (Num. 21:1) “the way of the spies (הָאֲתָרִים),” [derived from תור]. Here, too, among the שְׁמֵנִים, among the lusty living, we are like dead. And Jonathan rendered it as an expression of locking: It is locked before us as the graves are locked before the dead.
