ADDRESS TO CAPTIVE ISRAEL, CALLING UPON THEM TO TURN TO GOD, AND REMINDING THEM THAT THEY HAVE DESERVED THEIR AFFLICTIONS. By some critics the earlier verses of this passage (Isaiah 42:19-21) are regarded as having reference to the "Servant of the Lord" depicted in Isaiah 42:1-7, and as calling on the captive Jews to consider his voluntary humiliation, and the object of it.
But this view seems to be strained. It requires "deaf" and "blind' to be taken in completely different senses in the two consecutive Isaiah 42:18 and Isaiah 42:19. Probably Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne are right in taking the whole passage of captive Israel, and especially of that "outer circle" which was least deserving of God's favour and most open to rebuke and reproach.
These "blind" and "deaf" ones are warned that it is high time for them to unclose their eyes and open their ears, and are reminded that all their recent and present sufferings arise from their former "blindness" and disobedience.