First Servant Song: Justice
42 Behold My servant[a], whom I uphold.
My Chosen One,[b] in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Ruach on Him,[c]
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or raise His voice,
or make His voice heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break.
A smoldering wick He will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth justice.[d]
4 He will not be disheartened or crushed
until He establishes justice on earth.
The islands will wait for His Torah.
5 Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it,
and Ruach to those who walk in it[e]—
6 “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness,
I will take hold of Your hand,
I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people,[f]
as a light to the nations,[g]
7 by opening blind eyes,
bringing prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house.[h]
8 “I am Adonai—that is My Name!
My glory I will not give to another,
Or My praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things.
Before they spring forth
I announce them to you.”
10 Sing to Adonai a new song,
His praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea with all its fullness,
islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its cities exult—
the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the dwellers of Sela sing for joy.
Let them shout for joy
from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to Adonai
and declare His praise in the islands.
13 Adonai goes out as a mighty one.
He stirs up His zeal like a man of war.
He will shout, yes, raise a war cry!
He will prevail over His enemies.
14 “I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now like a woman in labor I groan,
gasping and panting at once.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the blind by a way they do not know.
in paths they have not known, I will guide them.
I will turn darkness before them to light
and the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
17 They will be turned back, utterly put to shame—
those trusting in idols,
who say to molten images, ‘You are our gods.’
18 Hear, you deaf!
Look, you blind, so you may see.
19 Who is blind, but My Servant?
Or deaf as My Messenger that I send?
Who is so blind as the one in covenant with Me,
blind as Adonai’s Servant?
20 You have seen many things,
but you do not pay attention.
Though ears are open, no one hears.”[i]
21 Adonai was pleased,
for the sake of His righteousness,
to make Torah great and glorious.
22 But this is a people robbed and looted.
all of them trapped in holes,
hidden away in prisons.
They have become a prey
with no one to deliver them,
and plunder,
with none to say, “Give them back!”
23 Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and heed hereafter?
24 Who gave Jacob to the looter,
Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not Adonai?
Have we not sinned against Him?
In His ways they were unwilling to walk
and His Torah they did not obey.
25 So He poured out on him the fury of His anger,
and the fierceness of battle.
it blazed all around him, yet he did not understand it.
it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 42:1 cf. Matt. 20:28.
- Isaiah 42:1 cf. Luke 9:35; 1 Pet. 2:4.
- Isaiah 42:1 cf. Matt. 3:16.
- Isaiah 42:3 cf. Rev. 19:11.
- Isaiah 42:5 cf. Gal. 5:25.
- Isaiah 42:6 cf. Heb. 9:15.
- Isaiah 42:6 cf. Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47; 26:23.
- Isaiah 42:7 cf. Luke 4:18-21.
- Isaiah 42:20 cf. Matt. 13:13-14.