speech. Jesus admonished “to bless those cursing you.” (Luke 6:28) “Keep on blessing those who persecute, be blessing and do not be cursing.” (Rom. 12:14) This does not mean to praise opposers, but good conduct toward such ones, coupled with kind, considerate, truthful speech that would be beneficial to them if heeded, may result in winning their goodwill. (1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Pet. 3:9) The manner of speaking must also be considered. (Prov. 27:14) To turn someone away from wicked deeds is indeed a blessing, working for that person’s best interests and to Jehovah’s praise.—Acts 3:26.

BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS

One can be a blessing to his fellowman by following a course of obedience to God. The association of such ones whom Jehovah blesses brings blessings to others. Laban was blessed because Jacob kept his flocks. (Gen. 30:27, 30) Potiphar’s household and field prospered due to Joseph’s oversight. (Gen. 39:5) The presence of ten righteous citizens could have caused God to spare Sodom. (Gen. 18:32) The dedicated servant of God can bring God’s favorable consideration to an unbelieving mate and their young children. (1 Cor. 7:14) Jesus said that, in the world’s time of greatest tribulation, “on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short,” otherwise “no flesh would be saved.” (Matt. 24:21, 22; compare Isaiah 65:8.) To imitate the example of God’s blessed ones brings even greater blessings. (Gal. 3:9; Heb. 13:7; 1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Thess. 3:7) Doing good to Christ’s brothers, God’s “chosen ones,” brings Jehovah’s blessings to the “sheep,” with the reward of everlasting life.—Matt. 25:34, 40, 46.

BLINDNESS

Blindness appears to have been quite a common affliction in the ancient Near East. Besides a sizable number of references to it in the Bible, secular writings, such as the Ebers Papyrus from Egypt, frequently refer to the condition, describing several forms of the disease and its symptoms, prescribing eyewashes and naming some of the surgical instruments used.

The standard of cleanliness set by the Law must have made eye diseases less prevalent among the Israelites than among the Egyptian and Arabian peoples; and we cannot assume that the situation in these lands now is an accurate picture of the condition of Israel in Bible times. Today a large percentage of people in the Near East are afflicted with some form of eye trouble and many are blind. Among some of these peoples it is considered “bad luck” to disturb the flies that infest the dried secretion on the eyes, even those of infants. This spreads the most highly infectious eye diseases. The breaking of God’s law concerning sexual morality spreads syphilis and gonorrhea, which diseases can cause blindness and are the source of much congenital blindness, the conjunctiva or mucous membrane of the eyes receiving the infection from the mother at the time of birth.

Israel’s law of retaliation requiring soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, not only emphasized the sanctity of life, but also impressed strongly upon the Israelites the need for extraordinary care to avoid doing injury to another and also to be sure that any testimony they presented in court was true and accurate, since the one bearing false testimony would suffer the very punishment he would have brought on an innocent person. (Ex. 21:23, 24; Deut. 19:18-21; Lev. 24:19, 20) If a master caused his slave to lose an eye, the master did not have one of his own eyes put out, but the slave was set free. (Ex. 21:26) While slaves could be required to work and could be beaten if rebellious, yet the master was thereby kept conscious of the need to refrain from being unduly severe.

It was a common practice of the Assyrians and Babylonians to put out the eyes of those whom they defeated in warfare. Blindness was induced by passing a red-hot copper plate before the eyes or by piercing the eyes with spears or hot irons. It may be that at times a dagger or sword was used. Samson was blinded by the Philistines, and King Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. (Judg. 16:21; 2 Ki. 25:7; Jer. 39:7) Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, said that he would accept the surrender of the city of Jabesh in Gilead “on the condition of boring out every right eye of yours, and I must put it as a reproach upon all Israel.” (1 Sam. 11:2) For certain crimes Persian law punished the guilty by blinding.

The Bible records several cases of blindness from senility or old age, where the eyes were not diseased, but “dim” or “set.” Because of it Isaac was led to bestow the blessing on the deserving one, Jacob. High Priest Eli began to lose his vision sometime before his death at the age of ninety-eight years. Jeroboam’s wife schemed to take advantage of the aged prophet Ahijah’s blindness, but Jehovah thwarted the plot. (Gen. 27:1; 1 Sam. 3:2; 4:14-18; 1 Ki. 14:4, 5) However, at the advanced age of 120 years it is reported of Moses that “his eye had not grown dim.”—Deut. 34:7.

Jehovah, who made the eye, can also bring about blindness. (Ex. 4:11) He warned the nation of Israel that if they rejected his statutes and violated his covenant he would bring upon them burning fever, causing the eyes to fail. (Lev. 26:15, 16; Deut. 28:28) He inflicted temporary blindness in the cases of the wicked men of Sodom and the sorcerer Elymas. (Gen. 19:11; Acts 13:11) Saul of Tarsus was blinded by the brilliance of the light when Jesus appeared to him “as if to one born prematurely.” He regained sight when Ananias laid his hands on him and “there fell from his eyes what looked like scales.” (1 Cor. 15:8; Acts 9:3, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18) In a prophetic utterance by the prophet Zechariah, Jehovah points out that the horses of those who come against Jerusalem will be stricken with loss of sight (Zech. 12:4), and that in the day belonging to Jehovah all the peoples that will actually do military service against Jerusalem will experience a scourge in which their very eyes will “rot away in their sockets.”—Zech. 14:1, 12.

The blindness that was brought on the military force of the Syrians at the word of Elisha was evidently mental blindness. If the entire army had been stricken with physical blindness, they would all have had to be led by hand. But the account simply says that Elisha told them: “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me.” On this phenomenon William James in his Principles of Psychology, Volume 1, page 48, states: “A most interesting effect of cortical disorder is mental blindness. This consists not so much in insensibility of optical impressions, as in inability to understand them. Psychologically it is interpretable as loss of associations between optical sensations and what they signify; and any interruption of the paths between the optic centres and the centres for other ideas ought to bring it about.” This was possibly the kind of blindnes removed by Jehovah when the Syrian army reached Samaria.—2 Ki. 6:18-20.

Blindness disqualified a man from serving as a priest at Jehovah’s sanctuary. (Lev. 21:17, 18, 21-23) The sacrifice of an animal that was blind was also unacceptable to Jehovah. (Deut. 15:21; Mal. 1:8) But Jehovah’s law reflected consideration and sympathy for the blind. The one who put an obstacle in the way of a blind man or misled him was cursed. (Lev. 19:14; Deut. 27:18) God’s righteous servant Job said: “Eyes I became to the blind one.” (Job 29:15) Jehovah himself indicates that in time he will do away with blindness.—Isa. 35:5.

When Jesus Christ was on earth, he miraculously restored the sight of many blind persons. (Matt. 11:5; 15:30, 31; 21:14; Luke 7:21, 22) When Jesus was near Jericho he cured blind Bartimaeus and his companion. (Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43) On another occasion he healed two blind men at the same time. (Matt. 9:27-31) Again he cured a demon-possessed man who was both blind and dumb. (Matt. 12:22; compare Luke 11:14.) One man’s sight was restored gradually. This may have been to enable the man so used to being in darkness to accommodate his eyes to the brilliance of sunlight. (Mark 8:22-26) Another man blind from birth, on having his sight restored, became a believer in Jesus. (John 9:1, 35-38) In the latter two cases Jesus used saliva or saliva mixed with clay, but this purported resemblance to folk remedies does not diminish the miraculous aspect of the healings. In the case of the man blind from birth, he was told to go wash in the Pool of Siloam before he received his sight. This was undoubtedly for a test of his faith, just as Naaman was required to bathe in the Jordan River before he was freed from his leprosy.—2 Ki. 5:10-14.

FIGURATIVE USES

Many times the groping about of the blind serves as a simile of helplessness. (Deut. 28:29; Lam. 4:14; Isa. 59:10; Zeph. 1:17; Luke 6:39) The Jebusites taunted David that their own feeble blind, weak though they were, could defend the fortress of Zion against Israel, so confident were they of the impregnable strength of the citadel.—2 Sam. 5:6, 8.

Miscarriage of justice through judicial corruption was symbolized by blindness and many are the exhortations in the Law against bribery, gifts or prejudice, as such things can blind a judge and prevent the impartial administration of justice. “The bribe blinds clear-sighted men.” (Ex. 23:8) “The bribe blinds the eyes of wise ones.” (Deut. 16:19) A judge, no matter how upright and discerning, may be consciously or even unconsciously affected by a gift from those involved in the case. God’s law thoughtfully considers the blinding effect, not only of a gift, but also of sentiment, as it states: “You must not treat the lowly with partiality, and you must not prefer the person of a great one.” (Lev. 19:15) So, for sentimentality or popularity with the crowd, a judge was not to render his verdict against the rich merely because they were rich.—Ex. 23:2, 3.

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

The Bible attributes far greater importance to spiritual sight than to the physical. Jesus used the occasion of healing the man blind from birth to point out the reprehensibility of the Pharisees because they professed to be those with spiritual sight and willfully refused to come out of their blind condition. They were like those who loved darkness rather than light. (John 9:39-41; 3:19, 20) The apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesian congregation about having the eyes of their heart enlightened. (Eph. 1:16, 18) Jesus points out that those who profess to be Christians but who are not conscious of their spiritual need are blind and naked, not discerning their pitiful, groping condition. (Rev. 3:17) Just as being in darkness for a long period of time will cause blindness to the natural eyes, the apostle John points out that a Christian who hates his brother is walking aimlessly in a blinding darkness (1 John 2:11), and Peter warns that one not developing Christian fruitages, the highest of which is love, is “blind, shutting his eyes to the light.” (2 Pet. 1:5-9) The source of such darkness and spiritual blindness is Satan the Devil, who, transforming himself into an angel of light, actually is “the god of this system of things” and the god of darkness who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they do not discern the good news about the Christ.—Luke 22:53; 2 Cor. 4:4; 11:14, 15.

BLOOD

“The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment and oxygen to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted.” (Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2d ed., Unabridged) Thus the blood both feeds and cleanses the body. The chemical makeup of blood is so exceedingly complex that there is a great deal that to scientists is still in the realm of the unknown.

In the Bible, the soul is said to be in the blood because blood is so intimately involved in the life processes. God’s Word says: “For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it.” (Lev. 17:11) For like reason, but making the connection even more direct, the Bible says: “The soul of every sort of flesh is its blood.”—Lev. 17:14.

Life is sacred. Therefore, blood, in which the creature’s life resides, is sacred and is not to be tampered with. Noah, the progenitor of all persons today living on the earth, was allowed by Jehovah to add flesh to his diet after the Flood, but he was strictly commanded not to eat blood. At the same time he was commanded to show respect for the life, the blood, of his fellowman.—Gen. 9:3-6.

TAKING LIFE

With Jehovah is the source of life. (Ps. 36:9) Man cannot give back a life that he takes. “All the souls—to me they belong,” says Jehovah. (Ezek. 18:4) Therefore, to take life is to take Jehovah’s property. Every living thing has a purpose and a place in God’s creation. No man has the right to take life except where God permits and in the way that he instructs. When, after the Flood, God kindly allowed man to add flesh to his diet, God required that man acknowledge the life of the creature as belonging to God by pouring out on the ground the blood of any wild animal caught in hunting and covering the blood with dust. This was like giving it back to God, not using it for one’s own purpose. (Lev. 17:13) In the case of animals brought to the sanctuary as communion offerings, in which the priest and the one bringing the sacrifice (and his family) had a share as a meal, the blood was drained out on the ground. When Israel got settled in Palestine and the sanctuary was too far away, a man could slaughter an animal for food at home but had to pour the blood on the ground.—Deut. 12:15, 16.

Man was entitled to enjoy the life that God granted him and anyone who deprived him of that life would be answerable to God. This was shown when God said to the murderer Cain: “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” (Gen. 4:10) Even one hating his brother, and so wishing him dead, or slandering him or bearing false witness against him, so as to endanger his life, would bring guilt upon himself in connection with the blood of his fellowman.—Lev. 19:16; Deut. 19:18-21; 1 John 3:15.

The value of life is considered so sacred by God that the blood of a murdered person is viewed by Him as defiling the earth, and such defilement can be cleansed only by shedding the blood of the murderer. On this basis the Bible authorizes capital punishment for murder, through duly constituted authority. (Num. 35:33; Gen. 9:5, 6) In ancient Israel no ransom could be taken to deliver the deliberate murderer from the death penalty.—Num. 35:19-21, 31.

Even in cases where the manslayer could not be found on investigation, the city nearest the site where the body was found was counted bloodguilty. To remove the guilt, the responsible city elders had to perform the procedure required by God and to disclaim any guilt or knowledge of the murder and pray to God for his mercy. (Deut. 21:1-9) If an accidental manslayer was not seriously concerned over the taking of a life and did not follow God’s arrangement for his protection by fleeing to the city of refuge and remaining there, the dead man’s nearest of kin was the avenger authorized and obligated to kill him so as to remove bloodguilt from the land.—Num. 35:26, 27; see AVENGER OF BLOOD.