Isaiah 42

1Behold 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.

2He will not cry out or raise his voice, or make his voice heard in the street.

3A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

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

5Thus says God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

6I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations.

7to open blind eyes, to bring a prisoner out from confinement, from the prison house those who sit in darkness.

8I am Yahweh; that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to idols.

9Behold, the former things have come to pass, and I declare new things; before they spring up, I announce them to you.

10Sing to Yahweh 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 those who dwell in them.

11Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the settlements where Kedar dwells; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the tops of the mountains.

12Let them give glory to Yahweh, and let them declare his praise in the coastlands.

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

14I have kept silent from long ago; I have been quiet and restrained myself. Like a woman in labor I will cry out; I will gasp and pant together.

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

16And I will lead the blind by a way they have not known; on paths they have not known I will guide them. I will make the darkness before them into light, and the crooked places into level ground. These are the things I have done, and I have not forsaken them.

17They will be turned back; they will be utterly put to shame—those who trust in an idol, who say to a cast image, “You are our gods.”

18Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.

19Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the one who is at peace, and blind like the servant of Yahweh?

20You have seen many things, but you do not observe; his ears are open, but he does not hear.

21Yahweh was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness, to make the law great and glorious.

22But this is a people plundered and pillaged, all of them trapped in holes and hidden away in prison houses. They have become spoil, with no one to rescue them; plunder, with no one saying, “Restore!”

23Who among you will listen to this, will pay attention and hear hereafter?

24Who gave Jacob over to plunder, and Israel to looters? Was it not Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? They were not willing to walk in his ways, and they did not listen to his law.

25So he poured out on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him ablaze all around, but he did not know; it burned in him, but he did not take it to heart.