Isaiah 42

THE SERVANT’S MISSION

42“This^o is my servant;^p I strengthen him,

this is my chosen one;^q I delight in him.^r

I have put my Spirit on him;^s

he will bring justice^C to the nations.^t

²He will not cry out or shout

or make his voice heard in the streets.

³He will not break a bruised reed,

and he will not put out a smoldering wick;

he will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not grow weak or be discouraged

until he has established justice on earth.

The coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.”^u

⁵This is what God, the Lord, says—

who created the heavens and stretched them out,^v

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,^w

who gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk on it^x—

⁶“I am the Lord. I have called you

for a righteous purpose,^Dy

and I will hold you by your hand.^z

I will watch over you, and I will appoint you

to be a covenant for the people^a

and a light to the nations,^b

⁷in order to open blind eyes,^c

to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,^d

and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

⁸I am the Lord. That is my name,

and I will not give my glory to another^e

or my praise to idols.

⁹The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events;^f

I announce them to you before they occur.”

A SONG OF PRAISE

¹⁰Sing a new song to the Lord;^g

sing his praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea with all that fills it,^h

you coasts and islands with your^A inhabitants.

¹¹Let the desert and its cities shout,

the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud.ⁱ

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;^j

let them cry out from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord

and declare his praise in the coasts and islands.

¹³The Lord advances like a warrior;

he stirs up his zeal like a soldier.^k

He shouts, he roars aloud,

he prevails over his enemies.

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past;

I have been quiet and restrained myself.^l

But now, I will groan like a woman in labor,^m

gasping breathlessly.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills

and dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn rivers into islands

and dry up marshes.ⁿ

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;^o

I will guide them on paths they have not known.

I will turn darkness to light in front of them^p

and rough places into level ground.^q

This is what I will do for them,

and I will not abandon them.^r

¹⁷They will be turned back and utterly ashamed—

those who trust in an idol

and say to a cast image,

‘You are our gods!’^s

ISRAEL’S BLINDNESS AND DEAFNESS

¹⁸“Listen, you deaf!

Look, you blind, so that you may see.^t

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant,^u

or deaf like my messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like my dedicated one,^B

or blind like the servant of the Lord?

²⁰Though seeing many things,^C you pay no attention.

Though his ears are open, he does not listen.”^v

²¹Because of his righteousness, the Lord was pleased

to magnify his instruction and make it glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and looted,

all of them trapped in holes

or imprisoned in dungeons.

They have become plunder^w

with no one to rescue them

and loot, with no one saying, “Give it back!”

²³Who among you will hear this?

Let him listen and obey in the future.

²⁴Who gave Jacob to the robber,^D

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord?

Have we not sinned against him?

They were not willing to walk in his ways,

and they would not listen to his instruction.

²⁵So he poured out his furious anger

and the power of war on Jacob.

It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it;

it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.^x