Isaiah 29:9 - Exposition

Stay yourselves, and wonder ; rather, stand stupefied and be astonished . The prophet bids them act as he knows that they will act. They will simply "stare with astonishment" at a prophecy which will seem to them "out of all relation to facts" (Cheyne). They will not yield it the slightest credence. They will only marvel how a sane man could have uttered such egregious folly. Cry ye out, and cry . Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate, "Blind yourselves, and be blind," which certainly gives a much better sense, and is justified by the use of the same verb in Isaiah 6:10 . As Pharaoh began by hardening his own heart, and then God hardened it, so those who blind their own eyes, and will not see when they have the power, are, in the end, if they persist, judicially blinded by God. They are drunken, but not with wine. "The drunkards of Ephraim" ( Isaiah 28:3 ) were such literally. They "erred through strong drink" ( Isaiah 28:7 ); they "were swallowed up of wine;" but the case was different with the infatuated ones of Judah. They were morally, not physically, intoxicated. Their pride and self-trust rendered them as irrational and as unimpressionable as ever drunkenness rendered any man; but they were not actual drunkards.