Isaiah 42–55

The Servant of the Lord

42“Behold! ^aMy Servant whom I uphold,

My ¹Elect One in whom My soul ^bdelights!

^cI have put My Spirit upon Him;

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

²He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,

Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

³A bruised reed He will not break,

And ²smoking flax He will not ³quench;

He will bring forth justice for truth.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged,

Till He has established justice in the earth;

^dAnd the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

⁵Thus says God the Lord,

^eWho created the heavens and stretched them out,

Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,

^fWho gives breath to the people on it,

And spirit to those who walk on it:

⁶“I, ^gthe Lord, have called You in righteousness,

And will hold Your hand;

I will keep You ^hand give You as a covenant to the people,

As ⁱa light to the Gentiles,

^7jTo open blind eyes,

To ^kbring out prisoners from the prison,

Those who sit in ^ldarkness from the prison house.

⁸I am the Lord, that is My name;

And My ^mglory I will not give to another,

Nor My praise to carved images.

⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,

And new things I declare;

Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Praise to the Lord

¹⁰ⁿSing to the Lord a new song,

And His praise from the ends of the earth,

^oYou who go down to the sea, and ⁴all that is in it,

You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

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

The villages that Kedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,

Let them shout from the top of the mountains.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,

And declare His praise in the coastlands.

¹³The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;

He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.

He shall cry out, ^pyes, shout aloud;

He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the Lord’s Help

¹⁴“I have held My peace a long time,

I have been still and restrained Myself.

Now I will cry like a woman in ⁵labor,

I will pant and gasp at once.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills,

And dry up all their vegetation;

I will make the rivers coastlands,

And I will dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;

I will lead them in paths they have not known.

I will make darkness light before them,

And crooked places straight.

These things I will do for them,

And not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be ^qturned back,

They shall be greatly ashamed,

Who trust in carved images,

Who say to the molded images,

‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf;

And look, you blind, that you may see.

^19rWho is blind but My servant,

Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as he who is perfect,

And blind as the Lord’s servant?

²⁰Seeing many things, ^sbut you do not observe;

Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

Israel’s Obstinate Disobedience

²¹The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;

He will exalt the law and make it honorable.

²²But this is a people robbed and plundered;

All of them are ⁶snared in holes,

And they are hidden in prison houses;

They are for prey, and no one delivers;

For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?

Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?

Was it not the Lord,

He against whom we have sinned?

^tFor they would not walk in His ways,

Nor were they obedient to His law.

²⁵Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger

And the strength of battle;

^uIt has set him on fire all around,

^vYet he did not know;

And it burned him,

Yet he did not take it to ^wheart.

The Redeemer of Israel

43But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,

And He who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, ^afor I have redeemed you;

^bI have called you by your name;

You are Mine.

^2cWhen you pass through the waters, ^dI will be with you;

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

When you ^ewalk through the fire, you shall not be burned,

Nor shall the flame scorch you.

³For I am the Lord your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

^fI gave Egypt for your ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

⁴Since you were precious in My sight,

You have been honored,

And I have ^gloved you;

Therefore I will give men for you,

And people for your life.

^5hFear not, for I am with you;

I will bring your descendants from the east,

And ⁱgather you from the west;

⁶I will say to the ^jnorth, ‘Give them up!’

And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’

Bring My sons from afar,

And My daughters from the ends of the earth—

⁷Everyone who is ^kcalled by My name,

Whom ^lI have created for My glory;

I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

^8mBring out the blind people who have eyes,

And the ⁿdeaf who have ears.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together,

And let the people be assembled.

^oWho among them can declare this,

And show us former things?

Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified;

Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”

¹⁰“You ^pare My witnesses,” says the Lord,

^q“And My servant whom I have chosen,

That you may know and ^rbelieve Me,

And understand that I am He.

Before Me there was no God formed,

Nor shall there be after Me.

¹¹I, even I, ^sam the Lord,

And besides Me there is no savior.

¹²I have declared and saved,

I have proclaimed,

And there was no ^tforeign god among you;

^uTherefore you are My witnesses,”

Says the Lord, “that I am God.

^13vIndeed before the day was, I am He;

And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;

I work, and who will ^wreverse it?”

¹⁴Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,

The Holy One of Israel:

“For your sake I will send to Babylon,

And bring them all down as fugitives—

The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.

¹⁵I am the Lord, your Holy One,

The Creator of Israel, your ^xKing.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord, who ^ymakes a way in the sea

And a ^zpath through the mighty waters,

¹⁷Who ^abrings forth the chariot and horse,

The army and the power

(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;

They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):

¹⁸“Do ^bnot remember the former things,

Nor consider the things of old.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a ^cnew thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

^dI will even make a road in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert.

²⁰The beast of the field will honor Me,

The jackals and the ostriches,

Because ^eI give waters in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert,

To give drink to My people, My chosen.

^21fThis people I have formed for Myself;

They shall declare My ^gpraise.

Pleading with Unfaithful Israel

²²“But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;

And you ^hhave been weary of Me, O Israel.

²³ⁱYou have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,

Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.

I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings,

Nor wearied you with incense.

²⁴You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,

Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;

But you have burdened Me with your sins,

You have ^jwearied Me with your iniquities.

²⁵“I, even I, am He who ^kblots out your transgressions ^lfor My own sake;

^mAnd I will not remember your sins.

²⁶Put Me in remembrance;

Let us contend together;

State your case, that you may be ¹acquitted.

²⁷Your first father sinned,

And your ²mediators have transgressed against Me.

²⁸Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;

ⁿI will give Jacob to the curse,

And Israel to reproaches.

God’s Blessing on Israel

44“Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant,

And Israel whom I have chosen.

²Thus says the Lord who made you

And formed you from the womb, who will help you:

‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant;

And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,

And floods on the dry ground;

I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,

And My blessing on your offspring;

⁴They will spring up among the grass

Like willows by the watercourses.’

⁵One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;

Another will call himself by the name of Jacob;

Another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’

And name himself by the name of Israel.

There is No Other God

⁶“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,

And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

^a‘I am the First and I am the Last;

Besides Me there is no God.

⁷And ^bwho can proclaim as I do?

Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,

Since I appointed the ancient people.

And the things that are coming and shall come,

Let them show these to them.

⁸Do not fear, nor be afraid;

^cHave I not told you from that time, and declared it?

^dYou are My witnesses.

Is there a God besides Me?

Indeed ^ethere is no other Rock;

I know not one.’ ”

Idolatry is Foolishness

^9fThose who make an image, all of them are useless,

And their precious things shall not profit;

They are their own witnesses;

^gThey neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.

¹⁰Who would form a god or mold an image

^hThat profits him nothing?

¹¹Surely all his companions would be ⁱashamed;

And the workmen, they are mere men.

Let them all be gathered together,

Let them stand up;

Yet they shall fear,

They shall be ashamed together.

^12jThe blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals,

Fashions it with hammers,

And works it with the strength of his arms.

Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails;

He drinks no water and is faint.

¹³The craftsman stretches out his rule,

He marks one out with chalk;

He fashions it with a plane,

He marks it out with the compass,

And makes it like the figure of a man,

According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself,

And takes the cypress and the oak;

He ¹secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.

He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵Then it shall be for a man to burn,

For he will take some of it and warm himself;

Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;

Indeed he makes a god and worships it;

He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.

¹⁶He burns half of it in the fire;

With this half he eats meat;

He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.

He even warms himself and says,

“Ah! I am warm,

I have seen the fire.”

¹⁷And the rest of it he makes into a god,

His carved image.

He falls down before it and worships it,

Prays to it and says,

“Deliver me, for you are my god!”

^18kThey do not know nor understand;

For ^lHe has ²shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,

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