Isaiah 42:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Hear, ye deaf, &c.— The prophet, having foretold the future illumination and conversion of the Gentiles, and the abolition of idolatry, takes an occasion thence to reprove the Jews for their blindness and stupidity in the great concerns of religion. See ch. Isaiah 2:5. &c. The meaning of the apostrophe is this: "Since matters are thus, and the Gentiles are to be illuminated by that Messiah who is to arise from amongst you, and who is to destroy all idolatry, and as these events are daily hastening more and more to their completion; what blindness, O children of Israel, what folly and madness do you betray? what deafness also, or rebellion, against the word of God, that, while you follow the idolatries of the Gentiles, and fall into the most severe judgments of God, you are so stupid as not to discern that God severely punishes you for this apostacy! Attend, therefore, diligently to those things which I now foretel, as most certainly to come to pass; and while you behold, look carefully and diligently into the matter itself. Do not consider it negligently or perfunctorily, but with that study and attention which its importance and your duty absolutely demand."