Isaiah 42

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.

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

or make it heard in the street;

^3ja bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

^khe will faithfully bring forth justice.

⁴He will not grow faint or be discouraged¹

till he has established justice in the earth;

and ^lthe coastlands wait for his law.

⁵Thus 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,

^7rto open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

^sfrom the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸I am the Lord; that is my name;

^tmy glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

⁹Behold, 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

^10vSing 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.

¹¹Let 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.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,

and declare his praise in ^lthe coastlands.

^13zThe 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.

¹⁴For 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.

^15dI 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.

^16eAnd 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.

^17gThey 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

¹⁸Hear, you deaf,

and look, you blind, that you may see!

¹⁹Who 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?

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

ⁱhis ears are open, but he does not hear.

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

to magnify his law and make it glorious.

²²But 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!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this,

will attend and listen for the time to come?

²⁴Who 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?

²⁵So 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.