Hebrew word · H5787

עִוֵּר

'iver

blind

Physically blind. Used figuratively for people who cannot understand or perceive, or who are helpless and cannot find their way. The law protected blind people: 'do not put a stumbling block before the blind' (Lev 19:14), and 'cursed is anyone who misleads a blind person on the road' (Deut 27:18).

Appears 26 times in 23 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) blind

1a) blind (physically)

1b) blind (fig.)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 42:16

Range of meaning

Physically blind. Used figuratively for people who cannot understand or perceive, or who are helpless and cannot find their way. The law protected blind people: 'do not put a stumbling block before the blind' (Lev 19:14), and 'cursed is anyone who misleads a blind person on the road' (Deut 27:18).

Against the English

English 'the blind' is accurate. But a modern reader may picture either physically blind people in general or individual 'spiritually lost' people. In Isaiah 40–55 the word mainly describes Israel as a people.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah uses blindness in both ways. It is a sign of the coming restoration ('the eyes of the blind will be opened', 35:5; 42:7). It is also a charge against Israel: 'Who is blind but my servant?' (42:19); 'bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes' (43:8). Compare the hardening in 6:9–10.

From the study of Isaiah 35:5

Range of meaning

'Blind,' a physical condition. The word is also used figuratively for not perceiving or understanding (Deut 16:19, a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise; Isa 56:10, Israel's watchmen are blind). The Hebrew word shape is one commonly used for bodily defects (compare ʾillēm 'mute' and piggēaḥ 'lame' in v. 6).

Against the English

'Blind' is accurate. A modern reader may not register how vulnerable blind people were in ancient Israel, or how often Isaiah uses the word for the nation's spiritual condition.

Used elsewhere in the period

Law protected the blind: Lev 19:14 forbids putting a stumbling block before them, and Deut 27:18 curses anyone who leads them astray. Blindness was also a bar to serving as a priest (Lev 21:18). Deut 28:29 gives the image of groping at noon 'as the blind grope in darkness' as a covenant curse. In Isaiah: 29:18 ('the eyes of the blind shall see'), 42:16, 42:18–19 ('who is blind but my servant?'), 43:8 ('bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes'). LXX: typhlos.

From the study of Isaiah 42:18

Range of meaning

Blind. Used literally in law (Lev 19:14; Deut 27:18: 'cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray'). Figuratively, used for people unable to see what is plainly before them: moral or spiritual blindness, or bribed judges (Exod 23:8, 'a bribe blinds'). Also used for the condition of prisoners kept in darkness.

Against the English

'Blind' is accurate. English readers may miss how much the picture of prisoners in dark dungeons stands behind Isaiah's blind (42:7: 'to open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon, those who sit in darkness').

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 42 uses the word in a pointed sequence. The Servant of 42:7 will open blind eyes. In 42:16 the LORD will lead the blind by a road they do not know. Now, in 42:18–19, the blind turn out to be the LORD's own servant. In 43:8 Israel is brought into court as a witness who is 'blind yet has eyes.' The LXX renders it typhlos.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 4:11 עִוֵּ֑ר blind

    And the LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

    Here: Someone who cannot see. Paired with 'open-eyed' as its opposite, so between them the two words cover all sight.

Leviticus · 2

  1. Leviticus 19:14 עִוֵּ֔ר a blind [person]

    You must not curse the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

    Here: A blind person, who cannot see the obstacle or who put it there. Paired with the deaf one to name the two senses through which a person protects themselves.

  2. Leviticus 21:18 עִוֵּר֙ blind

    No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed;

Deuteronomy · 3

  1. Deuteronomy 15:21 עִוֵּ֔ר blind

    But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

    Here: Blind (whether wholly or in one eye, as later Jewish law understood it). Lame and blind together form a stock pair in the Bible for obvious, visible impairment (Lev 21:18; 2 Sam 5:8; Mal 1:8).

  2. Deuteronomy 27:18 עִוֵּ֖ר a blind [person]

    ‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

  3. Deuteronomy 28:29 הָעִוֵּר֙ <the> blind [person]

    and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

    Here: 'The blind person', meaning a typical blind man. This picks up the 'blindness' (ʿivvaron) of v.28. In Israel's law the blind were a vulnerable class who must not be tripped or misled (Lev 19:14; Deut 27:18).

2 Samuel · 3

  1. 2 Samuel 5:6 הַעִוְרִ֤ים the blind [people]

    Now the king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. The Jebusites said to David: “You will never get in here. Even the blind and lame can repel you.” For they thought, “David cannot get in here.”

  2. 2 Samuel 5:8 הַ֣עִוְרִ֔ים עִוֵּ֣ר the blind [people], a blind [person]

    On that day he said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must use the water shaft to reach the lame and blind who are despised by David.” That is why it is said, “The blind and the lame will never enter the palace.”

    Here: 'The blind ones', the other half of the Jebusite taunt. David picks up their own words and turns them into the name of the target.

Job · 1

  1. Job 29:15 לַֽעִוֵּ֑ר to the blind

    I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 146:8 עִוְרִ֗ים blind [people]

    the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous.

    Here: Blind people, used as a noun. In Israel's world they were among the most dependent and exposed members of society, usually unable to work and easy to cheat (Lev 19:14; Deut 27:18).

Isaiah · 11

  1. Isaiah 29:18 עִוְרִ֖ים blind [people]

    On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

    Here: Blind people. The deaf and the blind are paired as in Exod 4:11 and Lev 19:14, the classic picture of people cut off from the world around them.

  2. Isaiah 35:5 עִוְרִ֑ים blind [people]

    Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

    Here: 'Blind ones,' plural and without 'the.' This is a whole class of people, all those who cannot see. In Isaiah the word also describes Israel failing to perceive what God is doing.

  3. Isaiah 42:7 עִוְר֑וֹת blind

    to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.

    Here: "Blind" is an adjective agreeing with "eyes" (feminine plural), so the phrase is literally "blind eyes", as the KJV has it. In Isaiah, blindness is both a literal disability and a standing picture of Israel's failure to perceive what God is doing (6:9–10; 42:18–19; 43:8). The main pause in the verse falls here.

  4. Isaiah 42:16 עִוְרִ֗ים blind [people]

    I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.

    Here: People who cannot see where they are going. Two verses later (42:18–20) God calls Israel, his own servant, blind. So the picture is of a helpless people who cannot find the road home.

  5. Isaiah 42:18 וְהַעִוְרִ֖ים and O blind [people]

    Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see!

    Here: "And you blind ones!" This is a second direct address, matching the first. The word has the same special shape Hebrew uses for words of bodily condition, like 'deaf,' 'mute' and 'lame.' Here the blindness is of the mind: failing to see what God is doing.

  6. Isaiah 42:19 עִוֵּר֙ עִוֵּר֙ וְעִוֵּ֖ר [is] blind, and blind

    Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD?

    Here: Physically blind, used here for failing to see what God is doing. It links back to v. 7, where the servant was meant to 'open blind eyes'.

  7. Isaiah 43:8 עִוֵּ֖ר blind

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

    Here: Describes the people. In this section of Isaiah blindness is a picture of failing to perceive what God has done and is doing (42:18–20), not a physical condition.

  8. Isaiah 56:10 עִוְרִ֤ים [are] blind

    Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.

    Here: Plain physical blindness used as a picture. A blind lookout is a contradiction in terms, so the opening words are bitterly ironic: the people whose only job is to see cannot see.

  9. Isaiah 59:10 כַֽעִוְרִים֙ like <the> blind [people]

    Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 31:8 עִוֵּ֣ר [the] blind

    Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!

    Here: "Blind." Someone who could not find the way alone on a march hundreds of miles long.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 4:14 עִוְרִים֙ blind [people]

    They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

Zephaniah · 1

  1. Zephaniah 1:17 כַּֽעִוְרִ֔ים like <the> blind [people]

    I will bring such distress on mankind that 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.

Malachi · 1

  1. Malachi 1:8 עִוֵּ֤ר a blind [animal]

    When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

    Here: A blind animal. Blindness is one of the defects the Law names outright as ruling an animal out (Lev 22:22; Deut 15:21).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.