Living blind, then

What daily life would have been like for a blind person in each kind of place Scripture shows. Written from what the text says and what the reference shelf adds, with room for the people who know: Brian and others who live without sight.

• In a herding camp. Genesis 27:1-4; Genesis 48:8-12. What would have worried a blind person most, living in a family that moved with its flocks between camps, as Isaac's did?
• In a hill-country village. 1 Samuel 3:1-10; 1 Samuel 4:12-18; 1 Kings 14:4-6. What would have worried a blind person most in a small settlement like Shiloh, where Eli and Ahijah lived, or any village of farmers in the hills?
• In a walled town, at the gate. Job 29:7-17; 1 Samuel 11:1-3; Mark 10:46-47. What would have worried a blind person most in a walled town, where life ran through the gate, as at Jabesh-gilead or Jericho, or where Job sat in judgment?
• In first-century Jerusalem. John 9:1-8; John 5:2-7; Matthew 21:14; Acts 3:1-3. What would have worried a blind person most in a crowded city built on hills, with stepped streets, pilgrim crowds and the Temple at the top?
• Canes, staffs and guides. Judges 16:25-26; Mark 8:22-23; Acts 13:11; Zechariah 8:4-5. How would you get around if there were no cane, only a stick or someone's hand?
• The blind through history. Job 29:15-16; Isaiah 42:16. Reading how blind people lived in later centuries, what rings true to your own life, and what has changed?

Each page ends with two open spaces: one for Brian's answer to the question at the top, and one for other people who live without sight. The point of these pages is to be filled in by people who know.