Isaiah 42–43

Chapter 42

¹Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my Spirit upon him,

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

²He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

³a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

⁴He will not fail^t or be discouraged^u

till he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his law.

⁵Thus says God, the Lord,

who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread forth the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people upon it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

⁶“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,

I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people,

a light to the nations,

⁷to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

from the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸I am the Lord, that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to graven images.

⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth

I tell you of them.”

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song,

his praise from the end of the earth!

Let the sea roar and all that fills it,

the coastlands and their inhabitants.

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

the villages that Kedar inhabits;

let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,

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 goes forth like a mighty man,

like a man of war he stirs up his fury;

he cries out, he shouts aloud,

he shows himself mighty against his foes.

¹⁴For a long time I have held my peace,

I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out like a woman in travail,

I will gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills,

and dry up all their herbage;

I will turn the rivers into islands,

and dry up the pools.

¹⁶And I will lead the blind

in a way that they know not,

in paths that they have not known I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame,

who trust in graven images,

who say to molten images,

“You are our gods.”

¹⁸Hear, you deaf;

and look, you blind, that you may see!

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant,

or deaf as my messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as my dedicated one,

or blind as the servant of the Lord?

²⁰He sees many things, but does not observe them;

his ears are open, but he does not hear.

²¹The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,

to magnify his law and make it glorious.

²²But this is a people robbed and plundered,

they are all of them trapped in holes

and hidden in prisons;

they have become a prey with none to rescue,

a spoil with none to say, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this,

will attend and listen for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler,

and Israel to the robbers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,

in whose ways they would not walk,

and whose law they would not obey?

²⁵So he poured upon him the heat of his anger

and the might of battle;

it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand;

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

Chapter 43

¹But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

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

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

³For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

⁴Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life.

⁵Fear not, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you;

⁶I will say to the north, Give up,

and to the south, Do not withhold;

bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the end of the earth,

⁷every one who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

⁸Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes,

who are deaf, yet have ears!

⁹Let all the nations gather together,

and let the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this,

and show us the former things?

Let them bring their witnesses to justify them,

and let them hear and say, It is true.

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” says the Lord,

“and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am He.

Before me no god was formed,

nor shall there be any after me.

¹¹I, I am the Lord,

and besides me there is no savior.

¹²I declared and saved and proclaimed,

when there was no strange god among you;

and you are my witnesses,” says the Lord.

¹³“I am God, and also henceforth I am He;

there is none who can deliver from my hand;

I work and who can hinder it?”

¹⁴Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“For your sake I will send to Babylon

and break down all the bars,

and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned to lamentations.^x

¹⁵I am the Lord, your Holy One,

the Creator of Israel, your King.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord,

who makes a way in the sea,

a path in the mighty waters,

¹⁷who brings forth chariot and horse,

army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,

they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

¹⁸“Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

¹⁹Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The wild beasts will honor me,

the jackals and the ostriches;

for I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

²¹the people whom I formed for myself

that they might declare my praise.

²²“Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;

but you have been weary of me, O Israel!

²³You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,

or honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings,

or wearied you with frankincense.

²⁴You have not bought me sweet cane with money,

or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins,

you have wearied me with your iniquities.

²⁵“I, I am He

who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

²⁶Put me in remembrance, let us argue together;

set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

²⁷Your first father sinned,

and your mediators transgressed against me.

²⁸Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary,

I delivered Jacob to utter destruction

and Israel to reviling.