The Lord’s Chosen Servant

42 eBehold fmy servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, gin whom my soul delights;

hI have put my Spirit upon him;

ihe will bring forth justice to the nations.

2  He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

3  ja bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

khe will faithfully bring forth justice.

4  He will not grow faint or be discouraged1

till he has established justice in the earth;

and lthe coastlands wait for his law.

5  Thus says God, the Lord,

who created the heavens mand stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

nwho gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

6  “I am the Lord; oI have called you2 in righteousness;

I will take you by the hand and keep you;

I will give you pas a covenant for the people,

qa light for the nations,

7  rto open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

sfrom the prison those who sit in darkness.

8  I am the Lord; that is my name;

tmy glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

9  Behold, the former things have come to pass,

uand new things I now declare;

before they spring forth

I tell you of them.”

Sing to the Lord a New Song

10  vSing to the Lord a new song,

his praise from the end of the earth,

wyou who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,

lthe coastlands and their inhabitants.

11  Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,

the villages that xKedar inhabits;

let the habitants of ySela sing for joy,

let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12  Let them give glory to the Lord,

and declare his praise in lthe coastlands.

13  zThe Lord goes out like a mighty man,

like a man of war ahe stirs up his zeal;

he cries out, bhe shouts aloud,

he shows himself mighty against his foes.

14  For a long time I have held my peace;

I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out clike a woman in labor;

I will gasp and pant.

15  dI will lay waste mountains and hills,

and dry up all their vegetation;

I will turn the rivers into islands,3

and dry up the pools.

16  eAnd I will lead the blind

in a way that they do not know,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

fthe rough places into level ground.

These are the things I do,

and I do not forsake them.

17  gThey are turned back and utterly put to shame,

who trust in carved idols,

who say to metal images,

“You are our gods.”

Israel’s Failure to Hear and See

18  Hear, you deaf,

and look, you blind, that you may see!

19  Who is blind but my servant,

or deaf as my messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as my dedicated one,4

or blind as the servant of the Lord?

20  hHe sees many things, but does not observe them;

ihis ears are open, but he does not hear.

21  The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,

to magnify his law and make it glorious.

22  But this is a people plundered and looted;

they are all of them trapped in holes

jand hidden in prisons;

they have become plunder with none to rescue,

spoil with none to say, “Restore!”

23  Who among you will give ear to this,

will attend and listen for the time to come?

24  Who gave up Jacob to the looter,

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,

in whose ways they would not walk,

and whose law they would not obey?

25  So he poured on him the heat of his anger

and the might of battle;

it set him on fire all around, kbut he did not understand;

it burned him up, lbut he did not take it to heart.

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

26 In that day ethis song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

he sets up fsalvation

as walls and bulwarks.

2  gOpen the gates,

that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

3  hYou keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4  Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

5  iFor he has humbled

the inhabitants of the height,

the lofty city.

He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust.

6  The foot tramples it,

the feet of jthe poor,

the steps of jthe needy.”

7  The path of the righteous is level;

kyou make level the way of the righteous.

8  In the path of your judgments,

O Lord, we wait for you;

lyour name and lremembrance

are the desire of our soul.

9  My soul yearns for you in the night;

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

mFor when your judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10  nIf favor is shown to the wicked,

he does not learn righteousness;

in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly

and does not see the majesty of the Lord.

11  O Lord, oyour hand is lifted up,

but pthey do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.

Let qthe fire for your adversaries consume them.

12  O Lord, you will ordain rpeace for us,

for you have indeed done for us all our works.

13  O Lord our God,

sother lords besides you have ruled over us,

tbut your name alone we bring to remembrance.

14  They are dead, they will not live;

they are shades, they will not arise;

to that end you have visited them with destruction

and wiped out all remembrance of them.

15  uBut you have increased the nation, O Lord,

you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

vyou have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16  O Lord, win distress they sought you;

they poured out a whispered prayer

when your discipline was upon them.

17  xLike a pregnant woman

who writhes and cries out in her pangs

when she is near to giving birth,

so were we because of you, O Lord;

18  xwe were pregnant, we writhed,

but we have given birth to wind.

We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,

and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19  yYour dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.

You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For zyour dew is a dew of light,

and the earth will give birth to the dead.

20  Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves afor a little while

until the fury has passed by.

21  bFor behold, the Lord is coming out from his place

to punish the inhabitants of cthe earth for their iniquity,

and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,

and will no more cover its slain.

The Redemption of Israel

27 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong dsword will punish eLeviathan the fleeing serpent, eLeviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay fthe dragon that is in the sea.

2  In that day,

g“A pleasant vineyard,1 hsing of it!

3  I, the Lord, am its keeper;

every moment I water it.

Lest anyone punish it,

I keep it night and day;

4  I have no wrath.

iWould that I had thorns and briers to battle!

I would march against them,

I would burn them up together.

5  Or let them lay hold of my protection,

let them make peace with me,

let them make peace with me.”

6  jIn days to come2 Jacob shall take root,

Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots

and fill the whole world with fruit.

7  kHas he struck them las he struck those who struck them?

Or have they been slain mas their slayers were slain?

8  nMeasure by measure,3 by exile you contended with them;

ohe removed them with his fierce breath4 in the day of the east wind.

9  Therefore by this pthe guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,

and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:5

qwhen he makes all the stones of the altars

like chalkstones crushed to pieces,

no rAsherim or incense altars will remain standing.

10  sFor the fortified city is solitary,

a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;

there the calf grazes;

there it lies down and strips its branches.

11  When its boughs are dry, they are broken;

women come and make a fire of them.

tFor this is a people without discernment;

therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;

he who formed them will show them no favor.

12 In that day ufrom the river Euphrates6 to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day va great trumpet will be blown, wand those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt xwill come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem

28 Ah, the proud crown of ythe drunkards of Ephraim,

and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

2  Behold, the Lord has zone who is mighty and strong;

like a storm of hail, a destroying …