Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 11:8
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
8. according as it is written ] Isa 29:10, and Deu 29:4. (Hebrews , 3.) The two passages combined read thus, from the Heb., “The Lord hath poured out (or spread) over you the spirit of deep sleep, and the Lord hath not given to you eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day:” The unbelief of Israel of old, traced by Moses and Isaiah to the mysterious withholding of grace, is here interpreted by St Paul to be a “prophecy in act” of the unbelief of Israel, and of its cause, in the days of Messiah. It will be seen that the words “ unto this day ” are part of the quotation, and that therefore no brackets should be used in this verse. As Moses indicated by them a continuous “hardening” of the mass of the nation in his day, so St Paul takes them to foreshadow the like continuousness in the Gospel age.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
According as it is written – That is, they are blinded in accordance with what is written. The fact and the manner accord with the ancient declaration. This is recorded in Isa 29:10, and in Deu 29:4. The same sentiment is found also substantially in Isa 6:9-10. The principal place referred to here, however, is doubtless Isa 29:10, For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers hath he covered. The quotation is not however literally made either from the Hebrew or the Septuagint; but the sense is preserved. The phrase according as means upon the same principle, or in the same manner.
God hath given – Expressions like this are common in the Scriptures, where God is represented as having an agency in producing the wickedness and stupidity of sinners; see Rom 9:17-18; see the Mat 13:15 note; Mar 4:11-12 note; see also 2Th 2:11. This quotation is not made literally. The Hebrew in Isaiah is, God has poured upon them the spirit of slumber. The sense, however, is retained.
The spirit of slumber – The spirit of slumber is not different from slumber itself. The word spirit is often used thus. The word slumber here is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The Greek word, however katanuxeos, implies also the notion of compunction, and hence in the margin it is rendered remorse. It means any emotion, or any influence whatever, that shall benumb the faculties, and make them insensible. Hence, it here means simply insensibility.
Eyes that they should not see … – This expression is not taken literally from any single place in the Old Testament; but expresses the general sense of several passages; Isa 6:10; Deu 29:4. It denotes a state of mind not different from a spirit of slumber. When we sleep, the eyes are insensible to surrounding objects, and the ear to sounds. Though in themselves the organs may be perfect, yet the mind is as though they were not; and we have eyes which then do not see, and ears which do not hear. Thus, with the Jews. Though they had all the proper faculties for understanding and receiving the gospel, yet they rejected it. They were stupid and insensible to its claims and its truths.
Unto this day – Until the day that Paul wrote. The characteristic of the Jews that existed in the time of Isaiah. existed also in the time of Paul. It was a trait of the people; and their insensibility to the demands of the gospel developed nothing new in them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. God hath given them the spirit of slumber] As they had wilfully closed their eyes against the light, so God has, in judgment, given them up to the spirit of slumber. The very word and revelation of God, which should have awakened their consciences, and opened their eyes and ears, have had a very different effect; and because they did not receive the truth in the love thereof, that which would otherwise have been the savour of life unto life, has become the savour of death unto death; and this continues to the present day.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is written; viz. in Isa 6:9; 29:10.
The spirit of slumber; the word signifieth, such a dead sleep, as those have, who are pricked or stung with venomous beasts, out of which they hardly or never awake.
Unto this day: q.d. So it was of old, and so it is still. Or else these words (the former being included in a parenthesis) may be joined with the last words of the foregoing verse, thus, the rest were blinded unto this day.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. as it is written (Isa 29:10;Deu 29:4).
God hath given“gave”
them the spirit ofslumber“stupor”
unto this day“thispresent day.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
According as it is written,…. In Isa 29:10 which passages the apostle seems to refer to, though it is not exactly word for word as here, yet the sense is the same:
God hath given them the spirit of slumber; or of stupidity and insensibility, so that they were as persons in a deep sleep; their senses locked up, without any knowledge of, or concern about, the danger they were in; having no sense of sin, or of the need of a Saviour; or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin and damnation, or of any ways and means to escape it; but careless and secure, as persons fast asleep in the midst of the sea, or upon the top of a mast, who, when stricken and beaten, feel it not; but if by jogging are awaked at all, immediately return to sleep again, and so sleep the sleep of eternal death:
eyes that they should not see; which being closed by the deep sleep and stupidity of mind they were judicially given up to, could see no beauty in Christ, wherefore they should desire him; none of the glories and excellencies of his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; noticing amiable and agreeable in his Gospel, and the truths of it; nor had they any light in the prophets of the Old Testament, which were so remarkably fulfilled in him; their minds were blinded, a vail was upon their hearts, and which remains to this day:
and ears that they should not hear; for persons in a sleep, as their eyes are closed that they cannot see, so their ears are stopped that they cannot hear: and thus it was with these Jews, the awful judgment being upon them; they were uncircumcised in heart and ears; they were like the deaf adder, stopping their ears to the charming voice of Christ in the Gospel; and being given up in a judicial way, could neither understand his speech, nor hear his word: and this spirit of stupidity and insensibility, as it appeared in the times of Isaiah, so it continued
unto this day; the then present time, in which the apostle lived; and has continued ever since, at least in part, and will until the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in. These passages, with some others following, are produced by the apostle out of their own prophets, to take off their resentment against him; and lest, he should be thought to be severe upon them, when he said no more of them, but what had been prophesied long before concerning them. So Jarchi on Isa 29:10; says, that Isaiah prophesies , “concerning the transgressors of Israel”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A spirit of stupor ( ). The quotation is a combination of Deut 19:4; Isa 29:10; Isa 6:9. This phrase is from Isa 29:10. is a late and rare word from , to prick or stick (Ac 2:37), in LXX, here only in N.T., one example in Pelagia-Legende. The torpor seems the result of too much sensation, dulled by incitement into apathy.
That they should not see ( ). Genitive articular infinitive of negative purpose.
That they should not hear ( ). So here also. See Stephen’s speech (Ac 7:51f.).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
It is written. Three quotations follow, two of which we blended in this verse : Isa 29:10; Deu 29:3. 55 Hath given [] . Heb., poured out. Sept., given to drink.
Slumber [] . Heb., deep sleep. Only here in the New Testament. Lit., pricking or piercing, compunction. Compare the kindred verb katenughsan were pricked, Act 2:37. Rev. renders stupor, the secondary meaning; properly the stupefaction following a wound or blow.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “According as it is written,” (kathaper gegraptai) “Just as it has been written”; Israel’s dispersion had been foretold and Paul considered that in their dispersion and rejection of Christ certain scriptures were fulfilled, Isa 6:9; Psa 69:24-27.
2) “God hath given them the spirit of slumber,” (edoken autois hotheos pneuma katanukseos) “God gave them (the hesitating, procrastinating) a spirit of torpor or slumber,” Isa 29:10-14; Psa 69:23. This spirit of stupor is not sent arbitrarily or unjustly from the Lord, but after frequent, often reproof, Pro 29:1; Act 7:51.
3) “Eyes that they should not see,” (ophthalmous tou me Blepein) Eyes of heaviness (he gave them) that they might not actively keep seeing, as they once did prior to their willful loitering, hesitating, procrastinating obedience to his call and pleas to them, Jer 5:21.
4) “And ears that they should not hear” (kai ota tou me akouein) “And ears not to keep hearing, as they heard before their loitering, hesitating, and procrastination to obey his voice and heed his call, Eze 12:2; Joh 12:37-43.
5) “Unto this day,” (heos tes semeron hemeras) “Until the present day,” the day of Paul’s writing Deu 29:4; and to a great degree until this day of their continuing blindness, deafness, and rebellion in following their blinded and deafened forefathers who rejected Jesus Christ, in and thru whom God’s Grace appeared to, toward, or in behalf of all men, Joh 1:14; Joh 1:17; Tit 2:11. Blind eyes, hardened hearts, and deaf ears are the heritage of national Israel, and shall continue till the Gentile and church era are finished, Rom 11:25-26; 2Co 4:3-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. Given them has God, etc. There is no doubt, I think, but that the passage quoted here from Isaiah is that which Luke refers to in Act 28:26, as quoted from him, only the words are somewhat altered. Nor does he record here what we find in the Prophet, but only collects from him this sentiment, — that they were imbued from above with the spirit of maliciousness, so that they continued dull in seeing and hearing. The Prophet was indeed bidden to harden the heart of the people: but Paul penetrates to the very fountain, — that brutal stupor seizes on all the senses of men, after they are given up to this madness, so that they excite themselves by virulent stimulants against the truth. For he does not call it the spirit of giddiness, but of compunction, when the bitterness of gall shows itself; yea, when there is also a fury in rejecting the truth. And he declares, that by the secret judgment of God the reprobate are so demented, that being stupified, they are incapable of forming a judgment; for when it is said, that by seeing they see nothing, the dullness of their senses is thereby intimated. (347)
Then Paul himself adds, to this very day, lest any one should object and say, that this prophecy had been formerly fulfilled, and that it was therefore absurd to apply it to the time of the gospel: this objection he anticipates, by subjoining, that it was not only a blindness of one day, which is described, but that it had continued, together with the unhealable obstinacy of the people, to the coming of Christ. (348)
(347) The quotation in this verse is taken from two passages: the first clause is from Isa 29:10, and the rest from Isa 6:9, or Deu 29:4. The first clause is not exactly according to the Hebrew or the Septuagint; instead of “God gave them,” etc., it is in the Septuagint, “the Lord hath made you drink,” etc., and in Hebrew, “Jehovah has poured upon you,” etc. It is the “spirit of slumber” in both, or rather, “of deep sleep” — תרדמה, a dead or an overwhelming sleep; and κατανύξις, though not as to its primary sense the same, is yet used according to this meaning. The verb means to puncture, to prick, either with grief or remorse, and also to affect with stupor. The latter idea the noun must have in this place, for the Hebrew does not admit of the other. The latter part is found in substance, though not in the same form of words in the two places referred to. — Ed.
(348) Some consider this passage as taken from Deu 29:4, and regard the last words as part of the quotation. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) The spirit of slumber.This phrase, again, has a curious history. Etymologically, the word translated slumber would seem to agree better with the marginal rendering, remorse. It comes from a root meaning to prick or cut with a sharp instrument. There happens to be another root somewhat similar, but certainly not connected, which means drowsiness, slumber. Hence, where the word in the text has been used to render the Hebrew word for slumber, it has been thought that there was a confusion between the two. It appears, however, from the LXX. usage, that the sense of slumber had certainly come to attach to the word here used by St. Paul. From the notion of a sharp wound or blow came to be derived that of the bewilderment or stupefaction consequent upon such a blow, and hence it came to signify stupor in general.
The quotation is a free combination of two passages of the LXX. (Isa. 29:10, and Deu. 29:4), no doubt put together by the Apostle from memory.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. God hath given them Because they would have it from him; just as God gives stupor and death to the man who swallows a large dose of laudanum. But he does this purely as the God of nature, carrying out the established laws of cause and effect. So upon the man who swallows moral opiates in order to a false repose, and who silences the voice of truth that he may not be awakened, God, sustaining the laws of cause and effect, will bestow the spirit of slumber. (See note on Act 28:26.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor (Isa 29:10), eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day (Deu 29:4).’
Paul then provides two citations from Scripture in order to support his diagnosis. The first is a Pauline concoction and is mainly based on Deu 29:4 (3 LXX), ‘Yet the Lord God has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.’ combined with elements from Isa 29:10 (LXX), ‘For the Lord has made you to drink a spirit of stupor, and he will close their eyes.’ In accordance with Isa 29:10 he makes the statement positive, bringing out that it is God’s doing. The spirit of stupor has prevented them from seeing and hearing. The word ‘stupor’ is rare, occurring here and in Isa 29:10; Psa 59:4 (LXX Psa 60:4). It is as though they have drunk something which prevents them thinking properly. The consequence is that they neither see nor hear.
Paul’s alteration of ‘made you to drink’ to ‘gave you’, while conforming with the opening verb in Deu 29:4, may be intended to contrast this experience of ‘gave you the spirit of stupor’, with ‘the giving of the Holy Spirit’ (Joh 3:34; Joh 7:39; 2Co 1:22; 1Th 4:8; 1Jn 3:24) to those who believed in Jesus Messiah, the spirit of stupor having in mind ‘the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience’ (Eph 2:2), ‘the god of this world who has blinded the eyes of those who do not believe’ (2Co 4:4). ‘To this very day’ emphasises the direct application to the unbelieving Jews of Paul’s day.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 11:8-10. According as it is written We need not suppose that the Apostle quotes these passages of Scripture as if they predicted the blindness and obduracy of the Jews in his time. It is sufficient for his purpose, if the case of wicked Jews in former ages shews the true reason of the infidelity, obstinacy, and wretchedness of the Jews who rejected the Gospel: for that is the point in view; not to prove that the infidel Jews were blinded,which was but too evident from their bitter opposition to the Gospel, and so wanted no proof; but to shew them the malignant cause and direful effects of their unbelief.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 11:8 . This ensued in conformity with that which stands written, etc. That which is testified of the hardening of the people in the time of Isaiah, and as early as that of Moses, has its Messianic fulfilment through the hardening of the Jews against the gospel, so that this hardening has taken place . . . This prophetic relation is groundlessly denied by Tholuck and Hofmann. The agreement denoted by . . is just that of prophecy and fulfilment according to the divine teleology. Comp. Mat 15:7 .
In the citation itself, Isa 29:10 (as far as .) and Deu 29:3 (not Isa 6:9 ) are combined into one saying, and quoted very freely from the LXX. Deuteronomy l.c. has after : , hence . . belongs to the quotation; and the words must not be put in a parenthesis, as Beza, Wolf, Griesbach, and others have done.
] He gave not mere permission (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and many).
] Heb. , i.e. a spirit producing stupefaction , which is obviously a daemonic spirit. Comp. 2Co 4:4 ; Eph 2:2 . Elsewhere the LXX. translate by (Gen 2:21 ; Gen 15:12 ), or (1Sa 26:12 ), or (Pro 19:15 ). They gave the approximate sense of the word differently according to the connection. But that they understood actually as stupefaction, intoxication , is clear from Psa 60:5 , where they have rendered , intoxicating wine , by . See in general, Fritzsche, Exc . p. 558 ff. This sense of is explained by the use of , compungi, in the LXX. and the Apocrypha to express the deep, inward paralyzing shock caused by grief, fear, astonishment, etc., whereby one is stupified and as if struck by a blow (Schleusner, Thes . III. p. 256; comp. on Act 2:37 ). In classical Greek neither the substantive nor the verb is found. We may add that every derivation is erroneous, which does not go back to (comp. , Plut. Mor . p. 930 F); nor is it admissible (since Paul certainly knew that . expressed ) to seek explanations which depart from the notion of . So e.g. Calvin: “Spiritum vocat compunctionis , ubi scilicet quaedam fellis amaritudo se prodit, imo etiam furor in respuenda veritate.” Similarly Luther (“an embittered spirit”) and Melanchthon. Chrysostom, indeed (and Theophylact), hits the thing itself rightly: , but his analysis of the word: , is arbitrarily far-fetched.
] A fatally pregnant oxymoron . The genit. is that of the aim: eyes, in order that they may not see , etc. Linguistically correct is also the rendering of Grotius: eyes of not-seeing, i.e. “oculos ad videndum ineptos,” Fritzsche, comp. Philippi and van Hengel. But the former view corresponds better at once to the original text (LXX. . ) and to the telic , Rom 11:10 . Comp. Isa 6:9-10 ; Joh 12:40 ; Act 28:27 .
. . .] belongs to the whole affirmation . . . Thus uninterruptedly God dealt with them. The glance at a future , in which it was to be otherwise (Hofmann), is here (comp. Rom 11:10 ) still quite remote.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
Ver. 8. The spirit of slumber ] So that with those bears in Pliny they cannot be awakened with the sharpest prickles; and with those asses in Etruria, that feeding upon henbane they lie for dead, and awake not till half-hilded. Such a dead lethargy is now befallen Papists.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] but the rest were hardened (not ‘ blinded ;’ see note on Eph 4:18 : . Theodoret. It is passive, and implies God as the agent . This for the sake of the context, . . ., not necessarily for the meaning of the word itself, which might indicate ‘became hard,’ but certainly does not here ), as it is written (if we are to regard these passages as merely analogous instances of the divine dealings, we must remember that the perspective of prophecy , in stating such cases, embraces all analogous ones , the divine dealings being self-consistent, and especially that great one , in which the words are most prominently fulfilled), God gave to them (LXX and Heb., ) a spirit (see reff.) of stupor (there is at the end of Fritzsche’s commentary on this chapter an elaborate excursus on , in which he has thoroughly investigated its derivation and meaning. He comes to the conclusion that it is derived from , ‘compungo,’ and might signify any excitement of mind, pity, sadness, &c., but in the few places where it occurs, it does import stupor or numbness : so ref. Ps. , which Hammond explains to mean the stupifying wine given to them that were to be put to death. Hamm. also cites from Marcus Eremita, . . p. 948, a passage where he describes as the consequence of . Tholuck compares the similar meanings of ‘frapp,’ struck , betroffen ), eyes that they should not see (such eyes that they might not see: in the Heb. and LXX the negative is joined with the verb, . . . .) and ears that they should not hear unto this present day . These last words are not, as Beza, E. V., Griesb., Knapp, to be separated from the citation, and joined to : they belong to the words in Deut. and are adduced by St. Paul as applying to the day then present, as they did to the day when Moses spoke them: see 2Co 3:15 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 11:8 ff. This hardening (at the present day Rom 11:5 ) agrees with God’s action toward Israel in the past, as exhibited in Scripture. The words from the O.T. can hardly be called a quotation; Deu 29:4 , Isa 29:10 , Isa 6:9-10 , all contributed something to them. The is from Isa 29:10 , and answers to the Heb. , a spirit of deep sleep or torpor. Virtually it is defined by what follows unseeing eyes, unhearing ears: a spirit which produces a condition of insensibility, to which every appeal is vain. only occurs in LXX, Isa 29:10 , Psa 59:4 ( ); but the verb is used by Theod. in Dan 10:15 to translate (cognate to ), and in other places of any overpowering emotion: see Fritzsche ad loc [5] Winer, p. 117. It is God Who sends this spirit of stupor, but He does not send it arbitrarily nor at random: it is always a judgment. : in Deu 29:4 . . The change emphasises the fact that what Israel had been from the beginning it was when Paul wrote, and that God had acted toward it from the beginning on the same principle on which He was acting then. Cf. Act 7:51 f. : another proof of , though strictly speaking a wish or an imprecation cannot prove anything, unless it be assumed that it has been fulfilled, and so can be taken as the description of a fact. Paul takes it for granted that the doom invoked in these words has come upon the Jews. . . . Their table in the psalm is that in which they delight, and it is this which is to prove their ruin. , , and are all variations of the same idea, that of snare or trap i.e. , sudden destruction. What the Jews delighted in was the law, and the law misunderstood proved their ruin. In seeking a righteousness of their own based upon it they missed and forfeited the righteousness of God which is given to faith in Christ. : this does not exactly reproduce either the Heb. or the LXX, but it involves the idea that the fate of the Jews is the recompense of their sin not a result to be simply referred to a decree of God. Their perverse attitude to the law is avenged in their incapacity to understand and receive the Gospel. : for this Gen [6] both in Rom 11:8 and Rom 11:10 , see Buttmann, Gram. of N.T. Greek , p. 267 (. tr.). : keep them continually in spiritual bondage, stooping under a load too heavy to be borne: cf. Act 15:10 .
[5] loc. ad locum , on this passage.
[6] genitive case.
This is the condition in which by God’s act, requiting their own sins, and especially their self-righteous adherence to the law as a way of salvation, the Jews find themselves. It is a condition so grievous, and so remote from what one anticipates for a people chosen by God, that it confronts Paul again with the difficulty of Rom 11:1 , and obliges him to state it once more this time in a way which mitigates its severity, and hints that the fall of Israel is not the last thing concerning them to be taken into account. What if God’s purpose includes and uses their fall? What if it is not final? It is with new ideas of this sort, introduced to take the edge from the stern utterances of Rom 11:8-10 , that Paul deals in Rom 11:11-24 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
hath given = gave.
spirit. App-101.
slumber = stupor. Greek. katanuxis. Only here. Quoted from Isa 29:10.
see. App-133.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] but the rest were hardened (not blinded; see note on Eph 4:18 :- . Theodoret. It is passive, and implies God as the agent. This for the sake of the context, …, not necessarily for the meaning of the word itself, which might indicate became hard, but certainly does not here),-as it is written (if we are to regard these passages as merely analogous instances of the divine dealings, we must remember that the perspective of prophecy, in stating such cases, embraces all analogous ones, the divine dealings being self-consistent,-and especially that great one, in which the words are most prominently fulfilled), God gave to them (LXX and Heb., ) a spirit (see reff.) of stupor (there is at the end of Fritzsches commentary on this chapter an elaborate excursus on , in which he has thoroughly investigated its derivation and meaning. He comes to the conclusion that it is derived from , compungo, and might signify any excitement of mind, pity, sadness, &c.,-but in the few places where it occurs, it does import stupor or numbness:-so ref. Ps. ,-which Hammond explains to mean the stupifying wine given to them that were to be put to death. Hamm. also cites from Marcus Eremita, . . p. 948, a passage where he describes as the consequence of . Tholuck compares the similar meanings of frapp, struck, betroffen),-eyes that they should not see (such eyes that they might not see: in the Heb. and LXX the negative is joined with the verb, . …) and ears that they should not hear unto this present day. These last words are not, as Beza, E. V., Griesb., Knapp, to be separated from the citation, and joined to : they belong to the words in Deut. and are adduced by St. Paul as applying to the day then present, as they did to the day when Moses spoke them: see 2Co 3:15.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 11:8. , ) Deu 29:4, yet the Lord God hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. Isa 29:10, LXX., , , … The Lord hath made you drunk with the spirit of slumber, and He will shut their eyes, etc. Add Matthew 13 [12,] 14, note. , hath given, by a most righteous judgment, and hath said to them, have.[121]-) in this passage denotes suffering from frequent pricking, which terminates in stupor. It is taken in a good sense, Act 2:37, and very often among ascetic writers. The Latins use similarly compunctio, compunction.-, even unto) A tacit limitation, 2Co 3:14.
[121] According as you have chosen. The have, refers to spiritual goods. From him who hath not (his spiritual privileges to any good purpose) shall be taken away even that he hath. God gives to men, that which they choose for themselves. You fancy you have, I give you accordingly.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 11:8
Rom 11:8
according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day.-Paul shows that this blindness had been foretold by their prophets. Isaiah foretold that God would send blindness upon them, because they were obdurate in their rebellion. And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them. (Isa 29:13). Their heart was not near God; so they feared him not from the teachings of God, but from the precepts of men. When people look to the wisdom and precepts of men instead of God for instruction, God says their heart is far removed from him; and When they persist in this course, he gives them over to blindness that they should bring ruin on themselves.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
God
Jehovah. Isa 29:10.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
God: Isa 29:10
slumber: or, remorse
eyes: Deu 29:4, Isa 6:9, Jer 5:21, Eze 12:2, Mar 4:11, Mar 4:12, Luk 8:10, Act 28:26
unto this day: 2Ki 17:34, 2Ki 17:41, 2Co 3:14, 2Co 3:15
Reciprocal: Exo 4:21 – I will harden Exo 14:4 – harden Lev 26:39 – and also Job 17:4 – General Psa 69:22 – Let their table Isa 44:18 – for he hath Dan 12:10 – but the wicked Mat 11:25 – because Mat 12:45 – Even Mat 13:14 – the prophecy Mar 8:18 – see Luk 10:13 – for Luk 11:34 – but Joh 10:26 – because Joh 12:40 – hath Act 13:27 – because Rom 3:10 – As it is Rom 9:18 – will he Rom 11:10 – their eyes Rom 11:25 – blindness 1Jo 4:6 – and
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS
As it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.
Rom 11:8
The blindness that happened to Israel, and arrested their spiritual growth, may be happening no less to any of us. As God gave them the spirit of slumber, so it may be with our lives.
And the very thought of our possible risks in this respect is valuable to us.
I. How comes it that we are so liable to be affected by this dullness of spirit and of general habit?we have to reply that it is because of the sensitiveness of the human soul to surrounding influences. It is because our souls are so receptive, so imitative, and in consequence so easily perverted, darkened, blinded, or misled. In the light of this feeling of the souls sensitiveness the thoughtful man is very often intolerant of things which to others seem of little moment, because he sees how they are tending to dull or deaden the eye of the soul, or to pervert or to kill its finer instincts; and how, in consequence, though tradition may have given them a sort of spurious consecration, or the world in its blindness may have come to honour them, they are in fact laden with mischief to the general life. It was the thought of this sensitiveness of the soul to external influences, and of the ease with which any bad influence, or bad custom or practice or fashion, perverts common lives, and of the untold mischief which is consequently latent in it, that winged the words of a well-known writer when she protested, some years ago, against what she designated as debasing the moral currency. Whosoever in anything that concerns the conduct of life spreads low notions or drags down mens opinion or taste, thus helping to pervert ordinary minds from those higher aims and motives and those reverent views of character and life which should be cherished for our common use and service, is debasing the moral currency.
II. Here, then, we have a very practical question for our consideration and answering. Is there anything in my lifeso the question comes to us in our self-examinationwhich could be so described? any influence spreading from my conduct of which men might truly say that it also is helping to debase the moral currency? Is there to be seen in it anything that tends towards the lowering of common standards? any misuse of things sacred or holy? any foolish or vulgar estimate of the higher things of life?
III. Remembering, then, how sensitive the soul is, and how easily by example, or conduct, or fashion, it may be so perverted as to lose its clear vision and higher aims, its pure tastes and ennobling emotions, we have to make it our ambition and endeavour that our life may be kept free from such debasement. But if we are to succeed in this, we must make it our daily prayer that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will enlighten the eyes of our understanding, and give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge and love of Him.
Bishop Percival.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1:8
Rom 11:8. God hath given them. He abandoned them to their unbelief for the time, but expects them finally to change and recognize Christ (Rom 11:26).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 11:8. According as it is written. The Scripture passages are cited here, because they set forth the principle of divine action, underlying the statement of Rom 11:7 : the rest were hardened, what had occurred in Old Testament times was not only analogous, but pointed to this punishment of the Jews, the agreement being that of prophecy and fulfilment according to the divine theology (Meyer).
He gave them a spirit of stupor. The citation is made freely from Isa 29:10 (LXX.). Stupor (a word found only here) meant first the numbness produced by stupefying wine, the corresponding verb being applied to the paralyzing from astonishment or grief.
Eyes that they should not see, etc. This part of the verse is from Deu 29:4, freely cited, and joined by the Apostle to the preceding as an explanation; the connection in the original passage being also with He gave. Others find here a further combination with Isa 6:9, but this is less likely. The clauses that they should not see, that they should not hear, express the purpose of the giving.
Unto this present day is a strengthening of the words of Deu 29:24, and should be joined with what immediately precedes. The fact that Isaiah repeats substantially what Moses previously said, justifies the application of this principle to the attitude of the mass of the Jews in the Apostles day. Clearly then God punishes men by giving them over to spiritual insensibility.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 8. Holy Scripture had already either witnessed to an operation of God in this direction in certain cases, or had raised the foreboding of it in regard to the Jews. So when Moses said to the people after their exodus from Egypt, Deu 29:4 : The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. And yet (Rom 11:2) they had seen all that the Lord did before their eyes. All the wonders wrought in the wilderness they had seen in a sort without seeing them; they had heard the daily admonitions of Moses without hearing them, because they were under the weight of a spirit of insensibility; and this judgment which had weighed on them during the forty years of their rejection in the wilderness continued still at the time when Moses spoke to them in the plains of Moab, when they were preparing to enter Canaan: until this day. In quoting this remarkable saying, Paul modifies it slightly; for the first words: God hath not given you a heart to perceive, he substitutes a somewhat different expression, which he borrows from Isa 29:10 : The Lord hath poured upon you the spirit of deep sleep. The negative form of which Moses had made use (God hath not given you…) perfectly suited the epoch when this long judgment was about to close: God hath not yet bestowed on you this gracious gift to this day; but He is about to grant it at length! While, when the apostle wrote, the affirmative form used by Isaiah to express the same idea was much more appropriate: God hath poured out on you…The state of Israel indeed resembled in all respects that of the people when in Isaiah’s time they ran blindfold into the punishment of captivity. Hence it is that Paul prefers for those first words the form of Isaiah to that of Moses.
There is something paradoxical in the expression: a spirit of torpor; for usually the spirit rouses and awakens, instead of rendering insensible. But God can also put in operation a paralyzing force. It is so when He wills for a time to give over a man who perseveres in resisting Him to a blindness such that he punishes himself as it were with his own hand; see the example of Pharaoh (Rom 9:17) and that of Saul (1Sa 18:10).
The term , which is ordinarily translated by stupefaction, and which we prefer to render by the word torpor, may be explained etymologically in two ways: Either it is derived from , the act of piercing, rending, striking, whence there would result, when the blow is violent, a state of stupor and momentary insensibility; or it is taken to be from , , , to bend the head in order to sleep, whence: to fall asleep. It is perhaps in this second sense that the LXX. have taken it, who use it pretty frequently, as in our passage, to translate the Hebrew term mardema, deep sleep. This second derivation is learnedly combated by Fritzsche; but it has again quite recently been defended by Volkmar. If we bring into close connection, as St. Paul does here, the saying of Isaiah with that of Deuteronomy, we must prefer the notion of torpor or stupor to that of sleep; for the subject in question in the context is not a man who is sleeping, but one who, while having his eyes open and seeing, sees not.
The works of God have two aspects, the one external, the material fact; the other internal, the divine thought contained in the fact. And thus it comes about, that when the eye of the soul is paralyzed, one may see those works without seeing them; comp. Isa 6:10; Mat 13:14-15; Joh 12:40, etc.
The apostle adds in the following verses a second quotation, taken from Psa 69:22-23.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
according as it is written [Isa 29:10; Eze 12:2; Deu 29:4], God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. [As the passage quoted is a combination of Isaiah and Deuteronomy, and is found in part also in Ezekiel, it suggests that the spirit of stupor, deafness and blindness characterized the course of Israel from beginning to end; and it was therefore to be guarded against as a chronic sin. Katanuxis (stupor) may be derived from katanussoo (Fritsche, Meyer), which means to prick or sting, and hence, as in bites of reptiles, etc., to cause stupefaction; or it may come from katanuzoo (Volkmar), which means to bend the head in order to sleep, to fall asleep. It is used in Psa 60:3; where it is translated “wine of staggering,” though Hammond contends that the passage refers to the stupefying wine given to them who were to be put to death. It means, then, that condition of stupor, or intellectual numbness, which is almost wholly insensate; for the term “spirit” means a pervading tendency. “Such expressions,” says Gifford, “as ‘the spirit of heaviness’ (Isa 61:3), ‘a spirit of meekness’ (1Co 4:21), ‘the spirit of bondage’ (Rom 8:15), show that ‘spirit’ is used for the pervading tendency and tone of mind, the special character of which is denoted by the genitive which follows.”]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
11:8 {6} (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of {g} slumber, eyes that they {h} should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
(6) And yet this hardness of heart does not come except by God’s just decree and judgment, and yet without fault, when he so punishes the unthankful by taking from them all sense and perseverance and by doubling their darkness, that the benefits of God which are offered to them, do result in their just destruction.
(g) A very sound sleep, which takes away all sense.
(h) That is, eyes unfit to see.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The quotation in this verse is a combination of Deu 29:4 and Isa 29:10. Paul used these passages to prove the following point. The Israelites did not follow God faithfully even though they saw God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt, experienced His preservation in the wilderness, and heard the warnings of the prophets. God gave them a spirit of stupor because they failed to respond to the numerous blessings that He bestowed on them. [Note: Robertson, 4:393.] A similar example would be a person losing his appetite for steak because he eats steak every day. This was apparently an instance of God giving them over to the natural consequences of their actions (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28).