We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
We grope for the wall like the blind - fulfilling Moses' threat (Deuteronomy 28:29).
We stumble at noon-day as in the night. There is no relaxation of our evils: at the time when we might look We stumble at noon-day as in the night. There is no relaxation of our evils: at the time when we might look for the noon of relief, there is still the night of our calamity.
(We are) in desolate places as dead men - rather, to suit the parallel words, "at noon-day," 'in fertile (literally, fat, Genesis 27:28) fields' ( 'ashmaniym (H820), the same as mishmaniym (H4924), 'fatnesses; so fat fields, from shaaman (H8080), shemen (H8081), oil) (Gesenius), (where all is promising) we are like the dead (who have no hope left them); or, where others are prosperous, we wander about as dead men. True of all unbelievers (Isaiah 26:10; Luke 15:17). The Vulgate translates, 'in dark places.' The English version, with Rabbi Joseph, takes the initial aleph to be radical, and the root to be asham, to desolate. But Rabbi Dones deduces it from shaaman (H8080). The parallelism of 'in fat places' to "at noon-day" favours this.