42:7 to open blind eyes, 1
to release prisoners 2 from dungeons,
those who live in darkness from prisons.
49:9 You will say 3 to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons, 4 ‘Emerge.’ 5
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
1 sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.
2 sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.
3 tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.
4 tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”
5 tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).