an as a designation of
spiritual blindness, of the want of the light of knowledge. That is
also suggested by the preceding: "for the Light of the Gentiles,"
which, according to the common _usus loquendi_, and according to chap.
ix. 1 (2) is not to be referred to the spiritual illumination
especially, [Pg 224] but to the bestowal of salvation. To this view we
are likewise led by a comparison of ver. 16: "And I will lead the blind
by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have
not known, I will change the darkness before them into light, the
crooked things into straightness." The _blind_ in this verse are those
who do not know what to do, and how to help themselves, those who
cannot find the way of salvation, the miserable; they are to be led by
the Lord on the ways of salvation, which are unknown to them. In a
similar sense and connection, the blind are, elsewhere also, spoken of,
comp. Remarks on Ps. cxlv. 8.--On the words: "Bring out them that are
bound from the prison," _Knobel_ remarks: "The citizens of Judah were,
to a great extent, imprisoned; the Prophet hopes for their deliverance
by the theocratic portion of the people." A strange hope! By this
coarsely literal interpretation, the connection with "for the Light of
the Gentiles" is broken up; and this is the less admissible that the
words at the close of the verse: "those that sit in darkness," so
clearly refer to it. _Imprisonment_ is a figurative designation of the
_miserable condition_, not less than, the _darkness_, which, on account
of the light contrasted with it, and on account of chap. ix. 1 (2),
cannot be understood otherwise than figuratively. Under the image of
men bound in dark prisons, the miserable and afflicted appear also in
Ps. cvii. 10-16; Job xxxvi. 8, where the words, "bound in fetters," are
explained by the parallel "holden in the cords of misery." When David,
in Ps. cxlii. 8, prays: "Bring my soul out of the prison," he himself
explains this in Ps. cxliii. 11 by the parallel: "Thou wilt bring my
soul out of _trouble_;" comp. also Ps. xxv. 17: "O bring thou me out of
my _distresses_." If we here understand the prison literally, we might,
with the same propriety in other passages, also, _e.g._, in Ps. lxvi.
11, understand _literally_ the net, the snare, the trap.

Ver. 8: "_I the Lord, that is my name, and my honour I will not give to
another, nor my glory to idols._ Ver. 9. _The former_ (things),
_behold, they came to p