Isaiah 42:18-25 - Blind And Deaf Israel

¹⁸
Hear, you deaf!
And look, you blind, that you may see.
¹⁹
Who is blind but My servant [Israel],
Or deaf like My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like the one who is at peace with Me [in a covenant relationship],
Or so blind as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰
You have seen many things, but you do not observe them;
Your ears are open, but no one hears.

²¹
The Lord was pleased for His righteousness’ sake
To make the law great and prove to be glorious.
²²
But this is a people despoiled and plundered;
All of them are trapped in holes,
Or are hidden away in prisons.
They have become a prey with no one to rescue them,
And a spoil, with no one to say, “Give them back!” ²³
Who among you will listen to this?
Who will listen and pay attention in the time to come?
²⁴
Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, He against whom we [of Judah] have sinned,
And in whose ways they [of Israel] were unwilling to walk,
And whose law and teaching they did not obey?
²⁵
Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His anger
And the fierceness of battle;
And engulfed him in fire,
Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach];
It burned him, but he did not take it to heart.