Isaiah 42

A servant who brings justice to the nations

¹Here is my servant; I hold him up. \q He is my chosen one, and I am well pleased with him. \q I have placed my Spirit on him, \q and he will carry justice out to the nations.^{a 2}He will not shout or make an uproar; \q he will not send his voice ringing through the streets. ³He will not snap off a split reed \q or smother a wick that is barely burning; \q with faithfulness he will bring justice out. ⁴He will not burn low or be crushed \q until he has set justice in place on the earth, \q and the coastlands will wait in hope for his instruction.^bc

⁵God, the LORD, says this, the one who created the heavens and stretched them out, \q who hammered the earth flat and brought forth its growth, \q who gives breath to the people living on it \q and life to those who walk there: ⁶I, the LORD, called you for a righteous purpose; I will grip your hand and guard you. \q I will make you a covenant for the people and a light for the nations,^{d 7}to give sight to blind eyes, \q to lead captives out of their cells, \q and out of the prison house those who sit in darkness. ⁸I am the LORD; that is my name. \q My glory I will not hand over to anyone else, \q nor the praise due to me to carved images. ⁹Look, what was foretold long ago has come about, \q and now I announce things that are new. \q Before they begin to sprout, I let you hear of them.

A new song from the ends of the earth

¹⁰Sing the LORD a new song; \q let his praise sound from the far edge of the earth, \q you seafarers and everything that fills the sea, \q you coastlands and all who dwell on them. ¹¹Let the desert and its towns lift their voices, \q the camps where Kedar’s people live; \q let those who live in Sela ring out with joy, \q calling out from the peaks of the mountains.^{e 12}Let them bring glory to the LORD \q and spread his praise through the coastlands. ¹³The LORD will go out like a hero; \q like a seasoned soldier he will fire up his zeal. \q He will shout, yes, raise the battle roar, \q and prove his strength against his enemies.

¹⁴Long have I been silent; \q I have kept still and held myself in check. \q Now I will groan like a woman giving birth, \q gasping and panting at once. ¹⁵I will strip mountains and hills bare \q and parch every green thing on them. \q I will turn rivers into dry land \q and leave the marsh pools dry.^{f 16}I will lead the blind on a road strange to them \q and guide them along tracks they have never walked. \q Ahead of them I will change darkness to light and rough ground to level. \q This is what I will do; I will not abandon them.^{g 17}But those who rely on a carved idol \q and say to a cast image, “You are our gods,” \q will be forced to retreat, covered with shame.

A servant who will not see or hear

¹⁸You deaf ones, listen! \q You blind ones, look up and see! ¹⁹Who is so blind as my servant, \q so deaf as the messenger I am sending? \q Who is as blind as the dedicated one, \q as blind as the servant of the LORD?^{h 20}You see so much, yet you take no notice; \q his ears are open, yet he hears nothing.^{i 21}For the sake of his own righteousness, the LORD was glad \q to make the instruction great and splendid. ²²Yet they are a people robbed and stripped, \q every one of them snared in holes \q and locked away in jails. \q They have become prey with none to rescue, \q booty with none to say, “Return them!”^{j 23}Which one of you will open your ears to this, \q attend closely, and listen from now on? ²⁴Who gave Jacob up as spoil and Israel to raiders? Was it not the LORD, \q the one we sinned against? \q They refused to walk in his ways \q and would not heed his instruction. ²⁵So he poured out on them the heat of his anger and the violence of battle. \q It set them ablaze on every side, yet they did not understand; \q it burned them, yet they gave it no thought.