Vector blend and permute functionality are provided, responsive to instructions specifying: a destination vector register comprising fields to store vector elements, a first vector register, a vector element size, a second vector register, and a third operand. Indices are read from fields in the second register. Each index has a first selector portion and a second selector portion. Corresponding unmasked vector elements are stored to fields of the destination register, wherein each vector element, responsive to the respective first selector portion having a first value, is copied to an intermediate vector from a corresponding data field of the first register, and responsive to the respective first selector portion having a second value, is copied to the intermediate vector from a corresponding data field of the third operand. Then unmasked data fields of the destination are replaced by data fields in the intermediate vector indexed by the corresponding second selector portions.