Isaiah 42

¹ Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.

² He will not cry out or raise 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 snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.

⁴ He will not grow dim or be bruised
until he establishes justice on the earth,
and the coastlands wait for his instruction.

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 on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:

⁶ "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;
I have grasped you by the hand.
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations —

⁷ to open blind eyes,
to bring prisoners out from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸ I am the LORD — that is my name!
My glory I will not give to another,
nor my praise to carved images.

⁹ The former things — see, they have come to pass,
and new things I now declare.
Before they spring forth,
I announce them to you.

¹⁰ Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth —
you who go down to the sea and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.

¹¹ Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voice,
the settlements where Kedar dwells.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the mountaintops.

¹² Let them give glory to the LORD
and declare his praise in the coastlands.

¹³ The LORD goes out like a warrior;
like a man of war he stirs up his zeal.
He shouts, yes, he raises a war cry;
he shows himself mighty against his enemies.

¹⁴ I have been silent for a long time;
I have kept still and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
I will gasp and pant together.

¹⁵ I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into coastlands
and dry up pools.

¹⁶ And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know;
in paths they have not known I will guide them.
I will turn darkness into light before them
and rough places into level ground.
These things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷ They will be turned back and utterly put to shame —
those who trust in carved images,
who say to metal images,
"You are our gods."

¹⁸ Hear, you deaf!
And look, you blind, that you may see!

¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like my covenanted one,
blind like the servant of the LORD?

²⁰ You see many things but do not observe;
ears are open but none hears.

²¹ The LORD was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness,
to make his instruction great and glorious.

²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons.
They have become plunder with no one to rescue,
spoil with no one to say, "Give them back!"

²³ Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come?

²⁴ Who gave up Jacob for spoil,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose instruction they did not obey?

²⁵ So he poured out on him the fury of his anger
and the violence of war.
It set him ablaze all around, but he did not know;
it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.