Isaiah 42–55

The Mission of Yahweh’s Servant

42Look! here is my servant; I hold him,

my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.

I have put^a my spirit on him;

he will bring justice forth to the nations.

²He will not cry out and lift up

and make his voice heard in the street.

³He will not break a broken reed,

and he will not extinguish a dim wick.

He will bring justice forth in^b faithfulness.

⁴He will not grow faint,

and he will not be broken

until he has established justice in the earth.

And the coastlands wait for his teaching.

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh,

who created the heavens

and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and its offspring,

who gives breath to the people upon it

and spirit to those who walk in it.

⁶“I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness,

and I have grasped your hand and watched over you;

and I have given you as a covenant of the people,

as a light of the nations,

⁷to open the blind eyes,

to bring the prisoner out from the dungeon,

those who sit in darkness from the house of imprisonment.

⁸I am Yahweh; that is my name,

and I do not give my glory to another,

nor^c my praise to the idols.

⁹Look! the former things have come,

and I declare new things.

I announce^d them to you before they sprout up.”

A Song of Praise to Yahweh

¹⁰Sing a new song to Yahweh;

praise him from the end of the earth,

you^e who go down to the sea and that which fills it,

the coastlands and their inhabitants.

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

the villages that Kedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;

let them shout loudly from the top^f of the mountains.

¹²Let them give^g glory to Yahweh

and declare his praise in the coastlands.

¹³Yahweh goes forth like a mighty warrior;

he stirs up zeal like a man of war.

He raises the war cry, indeed he raises the battle shout;

he prevails against his foes.

¹⁴I have been silent for a long time;

I have kept silent;

I have restrained myself like one giving birth;

I will moan, pant, and gasp together.

¹⁵I will cause mountains and hills to dry up,

and I will cause all their herbage to wither;

and I will make rivers like islands,

and I will cause pools to dry up.

¹⁶And I will lead the blind by a road they do not know;

I will cause them to tread on paths they have not known.

I will make darkness in their presence^h into light

and rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall turn back;

they shall be greatly ashamed,ⁱ

those who trust in an image,

who say to a cast image, “You are our gods.”

Blind and Deaf Israel

¹⁸Deaf people, listen!

And blind people, look to see!

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant

or^j deaf like my messenger whom I sent?

Who is blind like the one who is repaid

or^k blind like the servant of Yahweh?

²⁰You see many things, but^l you do not observe.

His ears are open, but^m he does not hear.

²¹Yahweh was willing for the sake of his righteousness;

he showed his teaching to be great and proved it to be glorious.

²²Butⁿ this is a people plundered and looted; all of them are trapped in holes,

and they are kept hidden in houses of imprisonment.

They have become like plunder, and there is no one who saves;

like booty, and there is no one who says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will heed this,

will listen attentively and listen, for the time to come?^o

²⁴Who gave Jacob to a plunderer^p

and Israel to those who plunder?

Was it not Yahweh, against whom^q we have sinned?

And they were not willing to walk in his ways,

and they would not obey^r his law.

²⁵So^s he poured the wrath of his anger upon him

and the strength of war.

And it set him afire all around, but^t he did not understand;^u

and it burned him, but^v he did not take it to heart.

The Restorer of Israel

43But now thus says Yahweh,

he who created you, Jacob,

and he who formed you, Israel:

“You must not fear, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by your name; you are mine.^a

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,

and through the rivers, they shall not flow over you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not scorch^b you.

³For I am Yahweh, your God,

the holy one of Israel, your savior.

I give you Egypt as ransom,

Cush and Seba in place of you.

⁴Because you are precious in my eyes,

you are honored, and I myself love you,

and I give people in place of you,

and nations in place of your life.

⁵You must not fear,

for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring^c from the east,

and I will gather you from the west.

⁶I will say to the north, ‘Give!’

and to the south, ‘You must not withhold!’

Bring my sons from far away,

and my daughters from the end of the earth—

⁷everyone who is called by my name,

and whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed,

indeed whom I made.”

⁸Bring out the people blind yet^d with eyes,

and deaf, though^e they have ears.

⁹Let all the nations gather together,

and let the peoples assemble.

Who among them has declared this,

and declared^f the former things to us?

Let them bring^g their witnesses, that^h they may be in the right,

and let them hear and say, “It is true!”

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” declaresⁱ Yahweh,

“and my servant whom I have chosen

so that you may know and believe in^j me

and understand that I am he.

No god was formed before me^k,

and none shall be after me.

¹¹I myself am Yahweh,

and there is no savior besides me!

¹²I myself declared and saved,

and I proclaimed.^l And there was no strange god^m among you.

And you are my witnesses,” declaresⁿ Yahweh,

“and I am God.

¹³Indeed, from this day I am the one,

and no one can deliver from my hand.

I perform,^o and who can cancel it?”^p

Yahweh Rescues His People

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer,

the holy one of Israel:

“For your sake I will send to Babylon,

and I will cause all of them to fall down as fugitives,

and the Chaldeans,^q their rejoicing on the ships.

¹⁵I am Yahweh, your holy one,

the creator of Israel, your king.”

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, who makes^r a way in the sea

and a path in the mighty waters,

¹⁷who brings out chariot and horse,

army and mighty one.

Together they lie down;

they cannot rise.

They are extinguished,

quenched like a wick.

¹⁸“You must not remember the former things,

and you must not consider the former things.

¹⁹Look! I am about to do a new thing! Now it sprouts!

Do you not perceive^s it?

Indeed, I will make^t a way in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert.

²⁰The animals of the field will honor me,

jackals and daughters of the ostrich,

for I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert,

to give a drink to my chosen people,

²¹this people whom I formed for myself,

so they might make known^u my praise.

²²But^v you did not call me, Jacob;

for you have become weary of me, Israel.

²³You have not brought me your sheep for a burnt offering

nor^w honored me with your sacrifice.

I have not made you serve with offerings,^x

nor have I made you weary with frankincense.

²⁴You have not bought me spice reed with money

or^y satisfied me with the fat of sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins;

you have made me weary with your iniquities.

²⁵I, I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

²⁶Take me to court; let us enter into judgment together.

You, make an account^z so that you may be in the right.

²⁷Your first ancestor^a sinned,

and your representatives^b transgressed against me.

²⁸And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary,

and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reviling.

Yahweh Blesses Chosen Israel

44“But now hear, Jacob my servant,

and Israel, whom I have chosen.

²Thus says Yahweh, who made you,

and who formed you in^a the womb and will help you:

you must not fear, my servant Jacob,

and Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour out water on a thirsty land

and streams on dry ground.

I will pour my spirit out on your descendants^b

and my blessing on your offspring.

⁴And they shall sprout among^c the grass

like willows by a watercourse of water.

⁵This one will say, ‘I belong to Yahweh!’

And that one will be called by the name of Jacob,

and another will write on his hand ‘Yahweh’s’

and take the name^d of Israel.”

Yahweh the Only God

⁶Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel,

and its redeemer, Yahweh of hosts:

“I am the first, and I am the last,

and there is no god besides me.

⁷And who is like me? Let him proclaim^e it!

And let him declare it and set it in order for me

since I established an eternal people^f and things that are to come,

and let them tell them the things that are coming.

⁸You must not tremble,^g

and you must not be paralyzed with fear.

Have I not made you hear from of old^h

and declared it, and you are my witnesses?

Is there a god besides me?

And there is no rock! I know none!”

Idolatry Is Ridiculous

⁹All those who form an idol are nothing,

and their delightful things do not profit.

And their witnesses do not see or know,

so they will be ashamed.

¹⁰Who would form a god

and cast an image of which he cannot profit?

¹¹Look! all his companions shall be ashamed,

and the artisans are human!

Let all of them assemble;

let them stand up.

They shall tremble;ⁱ

they shall be ashamed together.

¹²The ironsmith^j works in the coals with his tool

and forms it with hammers.

And he makes it with his strong arm;^k

indeed, he becomes hungry, and he lacks^l strength;

he does not drink water, and he is faint.

¹³The woodworker^m stretches out a line;

he makes an outline of it with a marker.

He makes it with a knife

and makes an outline of it with a compass.

He makes it like the image of a man,

like the beauty of a human, to dwell in a temple.ⁿ

¹⁴Cutting down cedars for himself,

he chooses^o a holm tree and an oak,

and he lets it grow strong for him among the trees of the forest.

He plants a cedar, and the rain makes it grow.

¹⁵And it becomes fuel for a human,^p

and he takes some of it and grows warm;

also, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Also, he makes a god and bows in worship;

he makes himself an image and bows down to it!

¹⁶He burns half of it…