The Mission of Yahweh’s Servant
42 Look! here is my servant; I hold him,
my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
I have put[a] my spirit on him;
he will bring justice forth to the nations.
2 He will not cry out and lift up
and make his voice heard in the street.
3 He will not break a broken reed,
and he not will extinguish a dim wick.
He will bring justice forth in[b] faithfulness.
4 He will not grow faint,
and he will not be broken
until he has established justice in the earth.
And the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says the God, Yahweh,
who created the heavens
and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and its offspring,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it.
6 “I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness,
and I have grasped your hand and watched over you;
and I have given you as a covenant of the people,
as a light of the nations,
7 to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoner out from the dungeon,
those who sit in darkness from the house of imprisonment.
8 I am Yahweh; that is my name,
and I do not give my glory to another,
nor[c] my praise to the idols.
9 Look! the former things have come,
and I declare new things.
I announce[d] them to you before they sprout up.”
A Song of Praise to Yahweh
10 Sing a new song to Yahweh;
praise him from the end of the earth,
you[e] who go down to the sea and that which fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout loudly from the top[f] of the mountains.
12 Let them give[g] glory to Yahweh
and declare his praise in the coastlands.
13 Yahweh goes forth like a mighty warrior;
he stirs up zeal like a man of war.
He raises the war cry, indeed he raises the battle shout;
he prevails against his foes.
14 I have been silent for a long time;
I have kept silent;
I have restrained myself like one giving birth;
I will moan, pant, and gasp together.
15 I will cause mountains and hills to dry up,
and I will cause all their herbage to wither;
and I will make rivers like islands,
and I will cause pools to dry up.
16 And I will lead the blind by a road they do not know;
I will cause them to tread on paths they have not known.
I will make darkness in their presence[h] into light
and rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
17 They shall turn back;
they shall be greatly ashamed,[i]
those who trust in an image,
who say to a cast image, “You are our gods.”
Blind and Deaf Israel
18 Deaf people, listen!
And blind people, look to see!
19 Who is blind but my servant
or[j] deaf like my messenger whom I sent?
Who is blind like the one who is repaid
or[k] blind like the servant of Yahweh?
20 You see many things, but[l] you do not observe.
His ears are open, but[m] he does not hear.
21 Yahweh was willing for the sake of his righteousness;
he showed his teaching to be great and proved it to be glorious.
22 But[n] this is a people plundered and looted; all of them are trapped in holes,
and they are kept hidden in houses of imprisonment.
They have become like plunder, and there is no one who saves;
like booty, and there is no one who says, “Restore!”
23 Who among you will heed this,
will listen attentively and listen, for the time to come?[o]
24 Who gave Jacob to a plunderer[p]
and Israel to those who plunder?
Was it not Yahweh, against whom[q] we have sinned?
And they were not willing to walk in his ways,
and they would not obey[r] his law.
25 So[s] he poured the wrath of his anger upon him
and the strength of war.
And it set him afire all around, but[t] he did not understand;[u]
and it burned him, but[v] he did not take it to heart.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 42:1 Literally “given”
- Isaiah 42:3 Or “to”
- Isaiah 42:8 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:9 Literally “cause to hear”
- Isaiah 42:10 Or “those”
- Isaiah 42:11 Literally “head”
- Isaiah 42:12 Or “establish”
- Isaiah 42:16 Literally “before their face”
- Isaiah 42:17 Literally “ashamed with shame”
- Isaiah 42:19 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:19 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:20 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:20 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:22 Or “And”
- Isaiah 42:23 Literally “later”
- Isaiah 42:24 The reading tradition (Qere) has “as plunder”
- Isaiah 42:24 Or “this”
- Isaiah 42:24 Literally “hear”
- Isaiah 42:25 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:25 Or “and”
- Isaiah 42:25 Or “did not know”
- Isaiah 42:25 Or “and”