What Does Isaiah 35:5 Mean?
Then the eyes of the blind open, and the ears of the deaf open.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.THE KEY
The verse gives sight and hearing one healing shape: both are opened, and the deaf ear’s “unstopping” is literally an opening.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where perception feels closed and holds sight and hearing as faculties that can open. Its image is not replacement but the removal of what blocks what is already there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closed perception proves a faculty is gone for good; the verse presents the blind eye and deaf ear as capable of opening.
THE ROOT
תִּפָּקַחְנָה
tippāqaḥnāh
GROWS FROM
פקח
paqach
Open, especially the eyes; restore sight.
The blind eyes use פקח (paqach, open the eyes), while the deaf ears use פתח (pataḥ, open): the roots differ, but the verbs run in parallel. Both coverings give way, so perception is uncovered rather than manufactured.
ALSO GROWS
poqe'aḥ: One who opens the eyes.
פֹּקֵחַ
Psalm 146:8 uses this form for the LORD opening the blind person’s eyes, echoing the release of sight in this verse.
lifqoach: To open, especially the eyes.
לִפְקֹחַ
Isaiah 42:7 uses this form for opening blind eyes, showing the same root at work in another promise of restored sight.
תִּפָּתַחְנָה
tippātaḥnāh
GROWS FROM
פתח
pataḥ
Open; make an entrance accessible.
The ear’s “unstopping” is expressed with פתח (pataḥ, open), the same root that gives פֶּתַח (petaḥ, doorway or opening) and מַפְתֵּחַ (maphtēaḥ, key). Hearing is pictured as an entrance reopened, with the blockage removed.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: An opening or doorway.
פֶּתַח
The ear’s opening shares its root with a doorway, making restored hearing an entrance through which sound can reach you.
maphtēaḥ: A key; literally, something that opens.
מַפְתֵּחַ
This branch links the opened ear to the wider image of access: what was closed becomes reachable.
THE PATTERN
Perception returns when what is closed opens, restoring sight and hearing by removing what blocks them.
To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.Jesus answered and said to them, Go, and tell John what you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are roused, and the good news is brought to the emptied.THE THREAD
To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.Isaiah 42:7 uses the same root פקח (paqach, open the eyes) when it speaks of opening blind eyes. It pairs that opening with prisoners coming out of confinement, joining restored perception to release from what holds a person shut.
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