Isaiah 49:1–7

The Servant’s Mission

49 Listen to me, O coastlands;

pay attention, you peoples from far away!

The Lord called me before I was born;

while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.*

2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away.*

3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”*

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my cause is with the Lord

and my reward with my God.”*

5 And now the Lord says,

who formed me in the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him,

and that Israel might be gathered to him,

for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—*

6 he says,

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to restore the survivors of Israel;

I will give you as a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”*

7 Thus says the Lord,

the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,

the slave of rulers,

“Kings shall see and stand up;

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”*