Blind

The umbrella collects what the Mosaic law and the historical narrative say about treatment of the blind: the law's explicit prohibition of cruelty toward them, and a single notorious episode in which the blind were used as taunting figures against David.

For the wider biblical material on physical and spiritual sight, see Blindness and the broader vision-related themes.

Cruelty toward the blind forbidden

Two parallel commands in the law place a fence around the blind. The Holiness Code joins them with the deaf as a paired class needing protection: "You will not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you will fear your God: I am Yahweh" (Le 19:14). The reverence-clause closes the verse — to abuse the blind is treated as a breach of fear toward Yahweh.

Deuteronomy's ceremony of blessings and curses pronounces the matter publicly. Among the curses chanted from Mount Ebal stands: "Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people will say, Amen" (De 27:18). The taking advantage of impaired sight is set under formal communal anathema.

The taunting Jebusites

When David moves on Jerusalem, the Jebusites rest their defense on a mocking display: they post the blind and the lame on the walls as a sign that even these can keep him out. David's response binds together the contempt and the conquest: "And David said on that day, Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him reach the watershaft and the lame and the blind, who hated David's soul. Therefore they say, The blind and the lame will not come into the house" (2Sa 5:8). The proverb that attaches itself to the episode preserves the memory of the taunt; the law's protection in Le 19:14 and De 27:18 stands behind David's contempt for the Jebusite use of the blind as instruments of mockery.