Isaiah 42 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Servant, a Light to the Nations

42 Here is 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.(A)
2 He will not cry out or lift up his voice
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.(B)
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth,
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.(C)

5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:(D)
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]
a light to the nations,(E)
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.(F)
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.(G)
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.(H)

A Hymn of Praise

10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar[b] and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.(I)
11 Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the inhabitants of Sela shout for joy;
let them shout from the tops of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord
and declare his praise in the coastlands.(J)
13 The Lord goes forth like a soldier;
like a warrior he stirs up his fury;
he cries out; he shouts aloud;
he shows himself mighty against his foes.(K)

14 For a long time I have held my peace;
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
I will gasp and pant.(L)
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.(M)
16 I will lead the blind
by a road they do not know;
by paths 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.(N)
17 They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame—
those who trust in carved images,
who say to cast images,
“You are our gods.”(O)

18 Listen, you who are deaf,
and you who are blind, look up and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant
or deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like my dedicated one
or blind like the servant of the Lord?(P)
20 He sees many things, but he does[c] not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear.(Q)

Israel’s Disobedience

21 The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness,
to magnify his teaching and make it glorious.(R)
22 But this is a people robbed and plundered;
all of them are trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons;
they have become a prey with no one to rescue,
a spoil with no one to say, “Restore!”(S)
23 Who among you will give heed to this;
who will attend and listen for the time to come?
24 Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler
and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom they sinned,[d]
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey?(T)
25 So he poured upon him the heat of his anger
and the fury of war;
it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.(U)

Footnotes

  1. 42.6Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 42.10Cn: Heb Those who go down to the sea
  3. 42.20Heb mss: MT You see many things but do
  4. 42.24Gk Tg: Heb we sinned

Cross references

  1. 42.1 : Isa 2.4; 43.10; 53.11; Mt 3.16, 17; 12.18–20; 17.5
  2. 42.3 : Ps 72.2; Isa 57.15
  3. 42.4 : vv 10, 12; Isa 40.28
  4. 42.5 : Isa 44.24; Zech 12.1; Acts 17.25
  5. 42.6 : Isa 43.1; 49.6, 8; Lk 2.32; Acts 13.47
  6. 42.7 : Isa 35.5; 61.1; Lk 4.18; 2 Tim 2.26; Heb 2.14
  7. 42.8 : Isa 48.11
  8. 42.9 : Isa 48.3, 6
  9. 42.10 : Isa 33.3; 40.3
  10. 42.12 : v 4; Isa 24.15
  11. 42.13 : Ex 15.3; Isa 9.7; 66.14–16; Hos 11.10
  12. 42.14 : Isa 57.11
  13. 42.15 : Isa 2.12–16; 44.27
  14. 42.16 : Isa 29.18; 41.17; Lk 1.78, 79; 3.5
  15. 42.17 : Ps 97.7; Isa 1.29; 44.11; 45.16
  16. 42.19 : Isa 43.8; Ezek 12.2
  17. 42.20 : Jer 6.10
  18. 42.21 : Isa 58.13
  19. 42.22 : Isa 10.6; 24.18, 22
  20. 42.24 : Isa 30.15; 48.18
  21. 42.25 : 2 Kings 25.9; Isa 5.25; Hos 7.9

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