Isaiah 42

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.