Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
See here, I. The misery of the people that want a settled ministry: Where there is no vision, no prophet to expound the law, no priest or Levite to teach the good knowledge of the Lord, no means of grace, the word of the Lord is scarce, there is no open vision (Sa1 3:1), where it is so the people perish; the word has many...
Where there is no vision, the people perish,.... That is, "no prophecy", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and which is often the sense of the word, as the vision of Isaiah is the prophecy of Isaiah; and, in the New Testament, prophesying is often put for preaching; and here vision, or prophecy, signifies the public ministering of the word and ordinances, and want...
no vision--instruction in God's truth, which was by prophets, through visions (Sa1 3:1). people perish--(Compare Margin), are deprived of moral restraints. keepeth the law--has, and observes, instruction (Pro 14:11, Pro 14:34; Psa 19:11).