“Listen, you who are deaf! Look and see, you blind!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.
- KJV Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
- BSB Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see!
- NKJV “Hear, you deaf; And look, you blind, that you may see.
- NASB ¶Hear, you who are deaf! And look, you who are blind, so that you may see.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God summons the spiritually deaf and blind to hear and see. It is a call to His own people to wake up to the truth He is revealing.
Overview
The address shifts to Israel, whose physical senses work but whose hearts are dull. God commands them to truly perceive what He is saying and doing. This summons exposes the deeper problem of unbelief and prepares for the gospel's call to spiritual sight, which only God can grant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 43:8Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.
- Mark 7:34–37Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
- Prov 20:12The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.
- Isa 35:5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
- Isa 29:18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
- Rev 3:17–18Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
- Luke 7:22Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
- Exod 4:11Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 42:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.