Isaiah 42

CHAPTER 42

Yahweh’s Chosen Servant

¹“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;

My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul is well-pleased.

I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;

He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.

²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,

Nor make His voice heard in the street.

³“A crushed reed He will not break

And a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;

He will bring forth ^ajustice in truth.

⁴“He will not be ^afaint or crushed

Until He has established justice in the earth;

And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh,

Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,

Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,

Who ^dgives breath to the people on it

And spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am Yahweh, I have ^acalled You in righteousness;

I will also ^btake hold of You by the hand and ^cguard You,

And I will give You as a ^dcovenant to the people,

As a ^elight to the nations,

⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,

To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeon

And those who inhabit darkness from the prison.

⁸“^aI am Yahweh, that is ^bMy name;

I will not give My ^cglory to another,

Nor My praise to ¹graven images.

⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass;

Now I declare ^bnew things;

Before they spring forth I cause you to hear them.”

¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,

Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!

^cYou who go down to the sea, ^das well as its fullness.

You ^ecoastlands, and those who inhabit them.

¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,

The villages where ^bKedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,

Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.

¹²Let them ^agive glory to Yahweh

And declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.

^13aYahweh will go forth like a warrior;

He will awaken His ^bzeal like a man of war.

He will make a loud shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry.

He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time;

I have kept still and restrained Myself.

Now like a woman in labor I will groan;

I will both gasp and pant.

¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hills

And dry up all their vegetation;

I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlands

And dry up the pools of waters.

¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,

In paths they do not know I will guide them.

I will ^bmake darkness into light before them

And ^crugged places into plains.

These are the things I will do,

And I will ^dnot forsake them.”

¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,

Who trust in graven images,

Who say to molten images,

“You are our gods.”

^18aHear, you deaf!

And look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,

Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?

Who is so blind as he that is ^1cat peace with Me,

Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?

^20aYou have seen many things, but you do not keep them;

Your ears are open, but none hears.

²¹Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sake

That He make the law ^agreat and majestic.

²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;

All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,

Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;

They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,

And a spoil, with none to say, “Have them return!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?

Who will give heed and hear hereafter?

²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?

Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned,

And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,

And whose law they did not ^bobey?

²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His anger

And the ^afierceness of battle;

And it set him aflame all around,

Yet he did not know it;

And it burned him, but he did not ^bset it upon his heart.