nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.’ (Isa. 42:1–9) The parallelism in verse 1 between ‘my servant’ and ‘my chosen’ echoes the language of 41:8–9, which suggests that the servant in view here is still Israel as a nation. But Isaiah 42:1 goes beyond the description of Isaiah 41:8–9, adding that Yahweh has placed his Spirit on his servant. What follows is a series of statements regarding